On April 28, a man who suffered a cardiac arrest was operated on by the Samu on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower for the installation of an artificial heart.
- A man suffered a cardiac arrest on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.
- The emergency services decided to operate on him on the spot.
- They managed to fit him with an artificial heart.
A man suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. The emergency services intervened quickly and, in view of the patient’s condition, they decided to intervene on the spot.
An artificial heart placed on the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower
According TF1/LCI, on the Eiffel Tower, the Samu teams decided to operate on the patient to fit him with an artificial heart. For this, they used a rescue technique called “ECMO”, for “extracorporeal membrane oxygenation” or, in French, “techniques d’assistance extracorporelle”.
According to University Hospital of PoitiersECMO allows “improve oxygenation in the most severe forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This assistance [permet] oxygenation no longer through the physiological lung but through an extracorporeal membrane (…). At the University Hospital, it is used in the medical and surgical resuscitation department and within the functional cardio-thoracic resuscitation unit.”
Important first aid actions in case of cardiac arrest
Here, the doctors used ECMO to ensure, thanks to a pump, the circulation and the oxygenation of the blood during the operation. The installation of the artificial heart lasted about two hours and, around 5 p.m., the patient was transported to a hospital in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. At this time, the patient’s condition is unknown.
Every year, 50,000 people die prematurely of cardiac arrest in France, according to the French Federation of Cardiology. This can be defined as the destruction of a more or less extensive area of the heart muscle which is caused by the obstruction of an artery of the heart which prevents the blood from circulating. Generally, it manifests itself in the following way: the person loses consciousness, falls, does not breathe and does not react when stimulated. Without immediate treatment, more than 90% of cardiac arrests are fatal. Hence the importance of first aid gestures: 4 out of 5 people who survive a cardiac arrest have benefited from them.