Jameel's Erev Yom Kippur story
In the Muqata, Jameel has an Erev Yom Kippur story from Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital.Cardiac Arrest.Gmar Chatima Tova and an easy fast to all of you. May you all be sealed in the books of life, health and happiness for the coming year.
Flatline alarm on the EKG.
Get the paddles!
You've seen it all before. TV shows like ER and Chicago Hope give you a glimpse of what goes on in hospital emergency rooms. I was once performing chest compressions as part of a CPR effort when the paramedic's cellphone went off -- his ringtone was that of the ER theme music..and I felt a weird "out of body" experience as I saw myself performing CPR to the tune of ER....life imitating fiction.
Yet what happened 2 months ago in Tel-Aviv's Ichilov Hospital is not fiction; the Ichilov Emergency Room Chief Doctor (on call that evening) personally gave me this first hand account last week.The patient had flatlined.
No electrical signals were going to his heart.
His heart wasn't pumping.
The emergency medical staff were well trained; among them included a senior cardiologist.
They used defibrillator paddles.
"Clear!"
No response.
They injected him with all sorts of medications.
Nothing.
CPR continues...Compressions....Oxygen...Drugs...Electrical Shocks...constant monitoring.
Flatline. Nothing.
The senior cardiologist, a religious Jew, is about to "call the time", but first bends down near the patient's head, and whispers into his ear the final words that Jews have said for thousands of years before they pass on, "Shma Yisrael, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echad."
Everyone in the room was silent.
And, uh.... read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:42 PM
1 Comments:
Just wanted to say "Thank You" for sharing this. :) I have passed it on to some friends as well.
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