If you have a cardiac arrest outside hospital the chances of survival are slim, and for patients who do not quickly respond to CPR, the odds are even lower. But a clinical trial by New South Wales ambulance has been saving lives by bringing a machine that is usually only available in hospital, to the scene of a cardiac arrest.
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00:00All clear.
00:05When the human heart stops, a race against the clock begins.
00:10This team of critical care doctors and paramedics are demonstrating life-saving mobile technology.
00:16It's being taken to the scene of cardiac arrests across Sydney to buy patients critical time.
00:21OK, we're putting wires up now, Jackie.
00:23We use it in CPR when the heart has actually stopped to be able to protect the brain and
00:30effectively stop the clock so that we can fix the cause of the cardiac arrest.
00:35They hook the patient up to this mobile ECMO machine, a form of heart and lung bypass.
00:41It puts oxygen into their blood so the brain and other vital organs can survive, even while
00:46the heart isn't pumping.
00:47Ready with the dilators, we've got wires confirmed.
00:50Last year, Todd Rivers became the first patient in Sydney to have his life saved by mobile
00:54ECMO, when his heart stopped for an hour while at work in south-western Sydney.
00:59You don't realise how lucky I am that I'm still here, you know.
01:04If it wasn't for the ECMO team and the government doing this study and trial, I wouldn't be
01:12here.
01:13OK, guys, so we're on ECMO flow now.
01:15Since the trial began, 28% of people placed on mobile ECMO have survived.
01:20Those patients' chances would usually be less than 3%.
01:24We'll get an arterial line in and we'll get going.
01:26So 10 times our chance of survival.
01:29We're interested in patient-centred outcomes, which is to walk out and go back to your family
01:33or go back to work.
01:34We're getting to get our patients onto the heart-lung bypass in world-beating times,
01:39as low as 17 minutes.
01:41Nowhere in the world are achieving what the doctors within NSW are achieving.
01:47The ECMO fits into the boot of a car, staffed by a paramedic and two critical care doctors
01:52who can rapidly reach 90% of metropolitan Sydney.
01:57That extra level of specialist care has also proven life-saving for patients who don't
02:02end up needing ECMO, like Paul Thompson, who went into cardiac arrest in his partner's
02:06car in December.
02:07One of the things I recall them telling me was that he was going to get at least the
02:11same quality of care, if not better, than he would be in a hospital, which was wonderful
02:15given that he was lying a footpath in the middle of Cremorne.
02:18Second chance of life and going to make the most of it with the family.
02:23The trial's funding may be expanded in the future.
02:26That's certainly something that we will look at doing, should we continue to get these
02:30types of results.
02:32And we're going back into a sinus rhythm, fantastic.
02:35But for now, it's been extended for another year.