61 hours of paid fun

     So this last weekend was full of work. I was actually at work for 61 hours out of the 72 that made up the weekend. I did two twenty four hour shifts back to back and a 12 hour MICU shift. I was surprised that there were no calls that involved Halloween stupidity. I was a bit disappointed.
     However, the call of weekend was a cardiac arrest. A rather young arrest at that. This patient was under 45 and had no other obvious health problems and nothing per his friends. He died in his friends house. Bummer. Anyway, we were initially called to do a pronouncement but were upgraded to priority one because the local FD started CPR due to the presentation. It was right thing to do. Even though it created another 2 hours of work for me. Oh well,
     Anyway, the presenting rhythm (or absence there of) was Asystole. This patient stayed that way through the entire resusitative effort. Everything went well. Good CPR, good tube (thanks to the FD), and good text book ACLS. The only factor that didn't cooperate was the patient. Asystole on arrival and after 20 minutes of resuscitation (6 epi, 3 atropine, Bicarb, D50%, Narcan, and NACL). We had good communication, good time keeping/documentation and a fairly clean area to work. But this patient wanted to stay dead. We ended up saying "you win" and called it. Can't save'em all. But you sure do have to try like hell.
      One good thing that came out of that code was the fact that I actually remembered to use my cool like code documentation app on my IPhone. It really helped with sticking with the time lines and not getting caught in the "ACLS time warp" where you loose your concept of time and either give meds too soon or much later than protocol state. Plus it helps out with your documentation later because it keeps a log of all the interventions and what times they were completed. Great little tool, if you remember you have it.
       And we had a student on that code. It was a great learning experience for him and he was able to earn some respect from the FD that was there. Good thing for him because it was his department. They were impressed with him and his willingness to help. Way to go man.
      Well, that is all for now. I am doing another 24 hours tomorrow in Commerce. Who knows what that will bring?