A needle goes into her leg for medications while we continue with CPR. The monitor shows no heartbeat at all. It’s a well-practised drill. We know what to do and we do it: chest compressions, adrenaline in, a tube in the airway to breathe for her, more adrenaline. A bit more of this, more of that. We go for twenty minutes, maybe thirty, there’s no heartbeat; we’re not winning. Ten more minutes . . . this is bad, very bad.
Watch Dr Simon Judkins re-tell Everything we can:
Everything we can by Dr Simon Judkins appears in EMERGENCY: Real Stories from Australia’s ED Doctors, available now from Penguin Books Australia.
Dr Simon Judkins
Dr Simon Judkins has been a doctor for over twenty years, and has worked as an Emergency Physician for fifteen of those. He has worked in Emergency Departments across Melbourne and regional Victoria, holds numerous positions with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and the Australian Medical Association, and is a regular contributor to public discussions on issues relating to public hospitals and public health.
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