A 23-year-old nurse in New Hampshire suffered cardiac arrest while attending a training session to treat someone experiencing the condition.
Andy Hoang started her first nursing job earlier this year and wished to specialize in cardiac care.
While Hoang attended the training session at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, she began to feel dizzy and nauseated.
The young nurse felt she needed to sit down.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Hoang said “that’s the last thing I remember.”
“I woke up to a room full of doctors and nurses,” she told the outlet.
Just after starting her first nursing job, Andy Hoang went into cardiac arrest herself and needed help immediately. Her colleagues sprung into action. https://t.co/e72ByZKt44
— ABC 7 Chicago (@ABC7Chicago) December 6, 2023
AP reports:
It turned out that she, herself, had gone into cardiac arrest and needed help immediately. Her colleagues sprung into action — instead of practicing chest compressions on a mannequin in a simulated environment, they went to work on her.
“One checked her carotid, one her femoral (arteries), and she did not have a pulse,” instructor Lisa Davenport said.
The nurses started CPR and a “code blue,” or medical emergency, team was called.
“What was really stressful about the situation was that we never had a real code blue in the center,” Davenport said. “We train for them all the time.”
Davenport shouted for help. Luckily, the Lebanon hospital’s critical care team was nearby, attending a separate session. More nurses came in, hooked Hoang up to defibrillator for monitoring, inserted an IV line and placed her on oxygen. A doctor and nurse from another department rushed in with crash carts.
Hoang was waking up by the time an emergency team arrived. Davenport estimated 15 minutes passed from the time Hoang slumped over to when they got her on a stretcher and sent her to the emergency department. But it felt longer.
A #CardiacArrest training for #nurses at @DHMCandClinics became a real emergency when a nurse unexpectedly went into cardiac arrest herself. “It really changed my perspective on how I view life," Andy Hoang, RN, told @AP. ❤️ https://t.co/kPnWxzAVfi @DHHeartVascular
— Dartmouth Health (@DartmouthHealth) December 7, 2023
“It worked out, but it was pretty frightening for all of us,” Davenport said.
“You just don’t expect that to happen with someone as young as Andy,” she added.
CBS News added:
Charmaine Martin, one of the nurses at the scene, agreed it was a scary moment, but also one “where I saw and felt supported and we all worked as a team,” she said in a statement.
Hoang, who recently returned to work, couldn’t believe what had happened either.
“I would say I’m your pretty average healthy 23-year-old,” she said. She goes to the gym four times a week, runs, and eats well. “I’m on my feet 12, 13 hours a day at work, so I want to make sure that I’m in shape for that.”
Cardiac arrest — the sudden loss of heart function — causes more than 436,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to the American Heart Association. It is different from a heart attack, which happens when blood flow to the heart is blocked.
A person can suffer cardiac arrest after having a heart attack, but the association says other conditions can also disrupt the heart’s rhythm and lead to cardiac arrest, including having a thickened heart muscle or cardiomyopathy, heart failure, arrhythmias and more.
According to information compiled by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a person’s risk of cardiac arrest increases with age. It is rare in someone younger than 30. Genetic arrhythmias, problems with the structure of the heart or coronary arteries, heart inflammation and substance abuse are the main risk factors in younger people. Most cardiac arrests also occur in men and women’s risk increases after menopause.
Unsurprisingly, the elephant in the room goes unmentioned by the mainstream media outlets.
They refuse to discuss the possibility of the experimental mRNA COVID-19 shots playing a role in a young, healthy nurse going into cardiac arrest.
In a recent press release, Pfizer acknowledged the increased risk of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 inoculation.
Pfizer issued a press release Friday afternoon stating definitively that mRNA covid vaccines “show increased risks” of myocarditis + pericarditis. pic.twitter.com/BQ70xDIhJ0
— Antonio Sabato Jr (@AntonioSabatoJr) October 23, 2023
From Pfizer:
Authorized or approved mRNA COVID-19 vaccines show increased risks of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the lining outside the heart), particularly within the first week following vaccination. For COMIRNATY, the observed risk is highest in males 12 through 17 years of age. Seek medical attention right away if you have any of the following symptoms after receiving the vaccine, particularly during the 2 weeks after receiving a dose of the vaccine:
- chest pain
- shortness of breath
- feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart