{"id":1105,"date":"2025-10-04T16:09:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepatientiwillalwaysremember.wordpress.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2025-10-04T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:09:29","slug":"a-very-humbling-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/?p=1105","title":{"rendered":"A Very Humbling Night"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I was in the final stages of preparing for my MRCEM exam in Emergency Medicine, while also working as a Medical Officer in the Accident and Emergency Department of a tertiary-care hospital.
Our hospital stood a little outside the city, so the late-night hours were usually quiet. Cardiac patients were rare; if one did arrive, we gave first aid and referred them to a nearby cardiac centre.
One morning, around 5:30 a.m., a 35-year-old woman was rushed in, a known hypertensive with heart disease, gasping for breath. On assessment, she was pulseless, with no cardiac activity. I started CPR immediately and asked one of the staff, more experienced with intubation, to pass the tube. Another was told to bring the defibrillator. When it was connected, the monitor showed Pulseless Electrical Activity. Adrenaline was given right away, and colleagues from ICU arrived to help.
After two doses of adrenaline, the rhythm changed to ventricular fibrillation. I delivered one shock, then another, then a third, continuing CPR between each.
A few minutes later, the rhythm shifted again \u2014 polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. We gave calcium gluconate, but despite every effort, we could not bring her back.
Afterward, I sat still for a long time, replaying each step, wondering what I might have missed. Later that morning I gathered the team who had been there, and we talked through the case together \u2014 what went well, what we could do differently next time.
That night humbled me deeply. I had always thought I was confident with ECGs and resuscitation, but I realised how much more there was to learn. In the weeks that followed, I re-studied cardiology ECGs, reviewed every resuscitation protocol, learned the defibrillator inside out, and worked on staying calm and organised when stress peaks.
The loss of that patient still saddens me. But she left me a lesson I carry every day: that in medicine, learning never ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was in the final stages of preparing for my MRCEM exam in Emergency Medicine, while also working as a Medical Officer in the Accident and Emergency Department of a tertiary-care hospital.Our hospital stood a little outside the city, so the late-night hours were usually quiet. Cardiac patients were rare; if one did arrive, we gave first aid and referred them to a nearby cardiac centre.One morning, around 5:30 a.m., a 35-year-old woman was rushed in, a known hypertensive with heart disease, gasping for breath. On assessment, she was pulseless, with no cardiac activity. I started CPR immediately and asked one of the staff, more experienced with intubation, to pass the tube. Another was told to bring the defibrillator. When it was connected, the monitor showed Pulseless Electrical Activity. Adrenaline was given right away, and colleagues from ICU arrived to help.After two doses of adrenaline, the rhythm changed to ventricular fibrillation. I delivered one shock, then another, then a third, continuing CPR between each.A few minutes later, the rhythm shifted again \u2014 polymorphic ventricular tachycardia. We gave calcium gluconate, but despite every effort, we could not bring her back.Afterward, I sat still for a long time, replaying each step, wondering what I might have missed. Later that morning I gathered the team who had been there, and we talked through the case together \u2014 what went well, what we could do differently next time.That night humbled me deeply. I had always thought I was confident with ECGs and resuscitation, but I realised how much more there was to learn. In the weeks that followed, I re-studied cardiology ECGs, reviewed every resuscitation protocol, learned the defibrillator inside out, and worked on staying calm and organised when stress peaks.The loss of that patient still saddens me. But she left me a lesson I carry every day: that in medicine, learning never ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,10,12,15,25],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family","tag-health","tag-life","tag-medicine","tag-writing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bothsidesnow.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}