A second chance after cardiac arrest (video)

What started as a normal day quickly turned into a life-or-death emergency when Brian Harris went into cardiac arrest and needed immediate medical care. The Coronado Fire Department responded quickly, putting critical care protocols into action before making the decision to rush Brian to Sharp Memorial Hospital for advanced treatment.

At the hospital, Brian was placed on ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This lifesaving treatment temporarily takes over the work of the heart and lungs while a patient receives critical care.

“ECMO is a very specialized skill,” says Dr. Christopher Ho, an emergency medicine doctor. “It requires certain equipment and training. We have now created an EMS system where these patients can be diverted to one of a few hospitals that can do this kind of resuscitation, and we can nearly triple the survival rate for these patients who have out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.”

For Brian, that coordinated response and access to specialized care gave him another chance at life. Today, he is grateful for the first responders, medical teams and lifesaving technology that helped him survive.

“Statistics show that I’m not supposed to be here,” he says. “The people here in Coronado gave me a second chance at life.”

Watch the above video to learn more about Brian and the technology that changed his life.