I had the opportunity to pump a case on Friday and it was a little different than most. We were doing an MVR. The patient had an abscess that was inside the left ventricle. It was just an ordinary case nothing out of the ordinary. He was a retired doctor, so we take extra good care of those guys. He was laughing and joking when he entered the OR and even giving us a little history lesson.
While on bypass the surgeon began to extract the abscess and realized how large it was. It had grown to engulf most of the anterior interior left ventricle. When the extraction was done there wasn't much tissue for the surgeon to work with. He decided to go with a patch on the interior and exterior of the ventricle. The surgeon was a little worried about coming off bypass and the patch holding. The patient came off bypass with no issues. It was a good case.
Today when we were getting ready to transport an ECMO patient I found out that the patient had expired. He was extubated without issue. He was talking, eating, and enjoying his family. The patch had given way and he went straight to asystole. The surgeon had never seen anyone go that fast. There was NOTHING anyone could do for him. While we did everything we could there are still somethings that are beyond our control.
--Gregory Kitchen
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