Doctors have performed CRP on Xiaoyu for five consecutive hours. /Changzhou Children's Hospital Photo
To save an eight-year-old boy who suffered from a cardiac arrest, 30 medical staff at Changzhou Children's Hospital in east China's Jiangsu Province carried out a five-hour long rescue relay, performing over 30,000 cardiopulmonary resuscitations (CPR) without interruption and miraculously won the battle against death.
Last Thursday, a boy called Xiaoyu was hospitalized for fulminant myocarditis at Changzhou Children's Hospital, local media outlet Xiandai Kuaibao reported. Patients suffering from this severe cardiac disease often experience a sudden onset of acute heart failure and cardiogenic shock, and the death rate is very high.
Xiaoyu was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) for emergency treatment at night, but his condition nonetheless worsened the next day.
As the young patient suffered from arrhythmia, heart failure and a sudden drop of blood pressure, the director of the ICU department Doctor Zou Guojin decided to transfer the child to a university hospital in Shanghai for ECMO, an advanced treatment used to treat patients with cardiogenic shock.
While the ICU team waited anxiously for Shanghai's colleagues and the ECMO equipment, Xiaoyu's condition deteriorated sharply and both his cardiac and respiratory systems stopped working.
Knowing that the trip between Shanghai and Changzhou would take hours, the hospital decided to prolong Xiaoyu's life by giving him CPR.
A total of 30 medical staff from different departments were dispatched for the mission and each had to give over 100 uninterrupted CPR moves within a minute.
Before the ECMO team arrived, they had performed the treatment in turns for five consecutive hours and completed over 30,000 cardiopulmonary resuscitations in total. Xiaoyu's condition stabilized afterwards and he was transferred to Shanghai for further treatment.
"I'm Xiaoyu and I love you all," Xiaoyu's father sent his gratitude to the medical staff on behalf of the boy. "Thank you for your great strength and power."
The miraculous rescue was later shared on China's social media platforms and many netizens were touched by the medical staff's persistent effort.
"I'm really moved! Hail to life and hail to all the medical staff!" @CC_Chilla commented on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo.
"Thank you for not giving up," @yongganzhex commented.
