What Is The Longest Amount Of Time Someone Has Had CPR And Survived?
I had CPR several times with the longest lasting an hour and a half. Just curious if other people have survived after anything like this also? 1st one was 29 minutes, 2nd was 55 minutes and the last one was an hour and a half. to say the least, my doctors and surgeon were stunned. they told my family i would have no brain function.
medic_on answered:
It is not practical to do CPR for that long. 45-50min yes if caught early enough. An hour and a half, no. The brain is not getting accurate blood flow and after about 30 minutes you are maxed out on drug therapies. Also, why did you go into cardiac arrest so many times. Most don't survive the first time? Most dr's stop CPR within 45 minutes and call the code.
etk79 answered:
3 and 1/2 hours is the longest I have seen
L_H Qutub(Retired) answered:
Four patients required CPR, the longest time was in a survivor who required 3.8 hours of CPR. They were all poisoned, and he went home after a cardiopulmonary bypass operation.
My 23 year old daughter survived 100 consecutive minutes of CPR one year ago. She had been ill about a week with flu like symptoms. She had gone to emergency with complaints of severe abdominal pain and dizziness. The RN had noted a murmur and a gallop on exam and called the cardiac doctor. They took her in for an echo and her heart stopped during the procedure. She was very fortunate to have been at a hospital.
After 20 minutes of CPR, she needed to be transferred to a bigger hospital. CPR was continued for the 25 minute ambulance ride to the next hospital and another 45 minutes while being hooked up to life support. She had less then 5% function of her left ventricle and less then 40% on the right. Her liver and kidney's went into failure as well.
Four days later she underwent over 10 hours of surgery to have ventricular assist device implanted (mechanical heart pump). She had received more then 70 blood transfusions in 10 days. The cause of her cardiac arrest was a virus that had attacked her heart. The doctors were amazed she survived and had thought she would have the mechanical heart for one year and then need a heart transplant. They also thought she would have some brain damage.
She woke up two weeks later with no neurological impairment. She was down to 70 lbs and could hardly walk. She was discharged home one month after her cardiac arrest. She started to recover in leaps and bounds.
After nearly 4 months, her own heart was functioning at 65% and she had the mechanical pump ex-planted. She will probably take heart medicine for the rest of her life and never run a marathon but is otherwise living a normal life. I agree that where the cardiac arrest takes place and how quickly CPR is administered makes all the difference. I also think that youth plays a role in survival rates. Deciding when to call a code has to be the most difficult decision anyone has to make, doctor or otherwise.
When I was 8 years old, I contracted Reyes Syndrome due to an spirin and chicken pox. At the time I was life flighted to primary children's hospital. First cardiac arrest, 25 min, second 45 minuets. I have died a total of 7 times in my life. I regained functionality of my limbs, but am wheelchair bound due to spacticity. I am cortically blind, and am sick a lot of the time. I graduated high school, college, and have an 8 year old son. Don't give up.
I am a first year paramedic and one of our lecturers told us that a doctor she is friendly with performed CPR on his son for 8 hours. They were out fishing and his son slipped, hit his head and drowned. His father pulled him out and commenced CPR immediately. They were in a remote area and there was no help for 8 hours. Obviously 8 hours is a ridiculous time to perform CPR for but when its your own son I am sure the logic is different. Apparently the son survived without any lasting harm.
There are three acceptable reasons for stopping CPR:
1) More qualified person asks you to stop
2) Physically unable to carry on
3) Very definite signs of life observed, such as purposeful movement
Never stop 'because the casualty is dead' unless you are qualified to diagnose death
I am a CPR instructor and I get this question a lot, but I'm not in the medical field. Other then no medical attention being provided to the victim at the time, why would you continue CPR? Obviously in these cases it was best, but to be more specific, at what point is it decided that the person is not going to survive? Since one person mentioned poison, is it a case by case situation?