AIIMS Docs Revive Patient After 120 Minutes of Cardiac Arrest Using eCPR

Bhubaneswar(The Uttam Hindu): The AIIMS Bhubaneswar has, to its credit, saved the life of a 24-year-old by the innovative extracorporeal cardio-pulmonary resuscitation technique.

This eCPR intervention revived a young man whose heart had stopped working for nearly 90 minutes, the medical sources said. The patient, Subhakant Sahu, is employed as a jawan in the Indian Army, according to medical sources. After a comprehensive 48-day treatment, Subhakant was discharged from AIIMS on Monday. Dr. Ashutosh Biswas, executive director of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, said, "AIIMS Bhubaneswar has always remained at the cutting edge to reconcile medical science with technology to give outstanding healthcare. This success indicates our quest for preserving lives and furthering medical methodologies.

Dr Biswas further elaborated, "The young patient, who was in a critical state due to heart failure, was referred to AIIMS Bhubaneswar on October 1, 2024. Soon after that, he had a cardiac arrest.". Though she had received standard CPR for 40 minutes, there was no resumption of cardiac activity, and thus, a critical decision to be taken was whether to pronounce her dead or go ahead with advanced eCPR procedure. He further explained, "Under Dr. Srikant Behera, an intensivist and ECMO for adult specialist, ECMO was initiated on the patient after 90 minutes of cardiac arrest.". As many as 40 minutes of eCPR, the young man's heart started to beat again, but not in a normal rhythm.

This is an incredible effort taken by the multidisciplinary team led by Dr. Krishna Mohan Gulla, Dr. Sandip Kumar Panda, Dr. Siddharth Sathia, Dr. Sangeeta Sahoo, and Dr. Manas R. Panigrahi along with MICU and nursing staff.