Can anyone explain this a&e situation please ???

[PurpleOrPink7]

I know nobody on here would know for sure what happened, but I was just hoping someone with a bit more knowledge would know roughly about it

last week I went to a&e because I knew i was having issues with my heart. Had it before and I know when it’s happening agajn. I was throwing up and really dizzy and just felt terrible. I got taken straight through and I remember my heart rate was 31 and my bp was 79/38 when I got triaged

i went to resus, and my heart was still the same and my blood pressure kept getting lower. The lowest I can remember was 50/29. There were a few doctors and nurses and I was basically wailing about how bad I felt because I felt like I was literally about to die. I remember them putting in a Canula and then I was all a blur after that. Next think I know I had projectile vomitted everywhere and as I went to lean back everything became blurry and dark. I remember thinking how even my voice sounded funny. Then I remember thinking where am I and what the fuck is going on. And then next thing I knew there was a LOT of people in the room and I had an oxygen mask on. There was another doctor but he was an anaesthetic consultant and a nurse matron and some other doctors and nurses. It was all a bit of a blur after that but i started to feel better with the medication they gave me.

we went to another hospital because they thought I needed a specialist ward or maybe pacing. By this point the medication had kicked in and I was confused about wtf happened. He said when I felt like I was in the black and dark and murky my heart had just completely stopped. It took them 30 seconds to make it beat again and he said I had no pulse or breathing at all in that time. Him and another doctor came in the ambulance with me to the other hospital and when we pulled up the anaesthestist literally said it was the worst, most stressful trip he’s ever taken as I was worried my heart would stop on the way

at the 2.nd hospital they got me sorted and patched up and I’m doing fine now. But just more curious about what happened because it feel likes a blurry murky dream for me! I’ve done a subject access request for my notes because it’s actually effected me quite a lot because it was pretty frightening!

I guess I was wondering and curious about how it happened, so like why I had an anaesthetist and did that mean they were going to put me to sleep or something? And I guess as well, if my heart did stop for that long does that mean I had a cardiac arrest? The next day at the new hospital the consultant asked if my chest was sore because what the other hospital handed over was that they did CPR on me. He said I was extremely lucky not to die that night. And I guess the other i wondered was who were all the other people and how they got there so quickly when my heart was only stopped for 30s

sorry bit of a jumbled up post and I know I’ll get clarity when I can read my notes. But in the meantime, does anyone know about any of this stuff? I’m not medical at all so it’s all completely confused my brain but it was realty frightening!

Didn’t make it clear enough in my OP but the staff were absolutely brilliant and me wondering what happened isn’t because I think something bad happened or because I had issues with the staff. They were all amazing. I guess it just got me wondering what had happened and for closure it would be good to know what happened that night

Hi, glad you’re doing well. There would usually be a couple of anaesthetists on a crash team and if you had CPR they would have been called. It may be an idea for you to contact PALS and ask for a debrief where they could talk it through with you rather than reading your notes before that
Most hospitals will be happy to facilitate this

Definitely ask for a debrief. I’d imagine you were the most - er - interesting job that shift.

Yes ask for a debrief/explanation of what happened. Your notes for something like this will be difficult reading for anyone not medical, they may actually just add to the confusion/not leave you any further along in knowing what happened/sometimes they're surprisingly brief for something which too the patient is quite reasonable a major life event but for that team it's just one of many cases they've been involved with on a Tuesday morning and just need to highlight what drugs procedures were done - not always the reasons why since that will be obvious for someone medical.

It does sound like you've had a life threatening heart arrhythmia - lots of possible causes for this. But the heart rather than just beating regularly in a manner that keeps you conscious and a strong pulse etc can become really irregular and weak. Sometimes there and long pauses between beats, sometimes it's not strong enough to make a pulse that can be felt at your neck or wrist.

When there's a long pause/you are not conscious and no pulse can be felt the Drs monitoring you can start CPR - they will treat it as a cardiac arrest - sometimes it turns out it wasn't actually a cardiac arrest - but the heart was in a very low flow state - I.e. it's beating but too slow/weak/irregular that CPR was the right thing to do regardless - but of extra oxygen/perfusion allows drugs to work and the heart can beat more normally itself - so not needing a shock to stop an incomparable rhythm itself.

When a patient is unwell there will be a team of Drs to care for you including an airway specialist/anaesthetist - in case you need an expert to place a tube in your throat to help you breathe. - when people are very sick like that the body loses control of the airway - I.e it collapsed closed and no more air would get it, or you might vomit and not be able to keep it out your lungs as we do when conscious - when this occurs a tube being rapidly placed can be life saving - sometimes in some events they're only placed for a short time then can be removed.

It may have been they considered putting you into a coma/asleep - occasionally when people are so unwell they can't understand what's happening around them - they pull at tubes/wires/cannulas/fight off the team and need to sedate to provide care as best interests. There are of course other reasons for sedation.

Glad you’re doing better now, that must have been terrifying ♥️. Have you being diagnosed with any heart issues? Maybe heart block?

Didn’t you get a discharge summary? It’ll say on there at least the main points. PPs are pretty much spot on though. Interhospital transfers with cardiovascularly unstable bradycardic patients can be really hairy. Sounds like they did a good job - glad you’re doing well. (anaesthetist)

it is natural to be traumatised after an experience such as this. Do you have any follow up appointments?

Thanks everyone x

yeah I got a discharge letter from the 2nd place I was at, but not from the initial place because they transferred me x