Out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation in three adolescents
- 1Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Congenital Heart Disease in Adults, Meyer Children’s Hospital, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
- 2Emergency Department, Meyer Children’s Hospital, Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel
- Dr Itai Shavit, Emergency Department, Meyer Children’s Hospital, Rambam Health Care Campus, POB 9602, Haifa 31096, Israel; i_shavit{at}rambam.health.gov.il
- Accepted 9 May 2008
Abstract
We describe three adolescents who experienced sudden cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation in an out-of-hospital setting and survived with good neurological outcome despite delayed time to defibrillation. All three were treated with prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by certified basic life support providers prior to first defibrillation. This report stresses the importance of early, minimally interrupted, chest compression CPR in children who suffer sudden cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital setting where defibrillation could be delayed.
Footnotes
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Competing interests: None.
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Patient consent: Parental consent obtained.
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Contributors: AK conceived the idea for this report, drafted the manuscript and reviewed the literature. IS drafted the manuscript and reviewed the literature. IS has full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data.
