Five years experience of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a children's hospital

Abstract The emergency call for resuscitation in a children's hospital is reported. Forty seven resuscitation attempts via the emergency call were made in 43 patients over the past 5 years; 24 out of 43 patients had heart diseases. Cardiac patients were more likely to die within a few days after their resuscitation. The patients, who had previously been in cardiac arrest, lost their lives more often. These results implied that it was very crucial to prevent cardiac arrest especially for cardiac patients in order to save lives. Among the causes of emergency calls, complications with the endotracheal tubes were most common (13) and the airway obstructions followed (11). Summation of two causes, the airway problems, accounted for more than half of the series. Sixteen out of all emergency calls occurred on weekends, and all endotracheal tube troubles broke out during a night shift or on a holiday, that is, the lives of those patients were threatened especially when fewer staff were on duty. Those accidents were embarrassing for us because we believe that all patients must have been under our surveillance all day. Some hospitals have a successful resuscitation rate, organizing a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) team. However, we obtained better results (about 30%) without a team. It should be borne in mind that it is more desirable to prevent cardiac or respiratory arrests initially rather than save the patients in emergencies.