arrest

a senior registar, dr nyirenda, and some medical students were doing a tutorial on lower limb motor exam when a nursing student called us over to see a patient who was in convulsions. dr. n asked to review the file, and about a minute later the nursing student came and told dr. n that the patient was now gasping. i believe his underlying condition was endstage renal failure

we walked over to where he was, and after listening to his heart, realized he was in cardiac arrest. dr. n started chest compressions and i was holding a facemask giving him oxygen (although i really had no idea about the timing or number of breaths or anything really about basic life support). i could feel that his neck and face were quite cold, and couldn't feel a carotid pulse. we tried to inject him with adrenaline, but after a few minutes of chest compressions dr. n said that he was dead.

a few minutes after that, we walked back to where the tutorial was (just 10 meters away in our very open ward) and the family of the man who had passed started wailing

that was the first time anyone has died right in front of me

i was quite sad and started tearing when the family started wailing. dr. n just went right ahead and did the tutorial with no apparent emotions. he must have seen hundreds of patients die like that