Two Cardiac Arrests

Recently discharged from hospital after rehab for a fracture following
a fall she had sat at home with abdominal pain increasing through the
day. When it finally became too much at 4 in the morning she pressed
her lifeline. On our arrival she was being assessed by one of our ECPs
and it became rapidly obvious that she was in a bad way. She arrested
twice as we moved her to the back of the ambulance but each time we
got her back with minimal effort. The ECP had warned her family that
she was probably not going to make it but they had not seemed to
understand. I suppose denial is a marvelous thing. We blued her in
with the student supporting her breathing using a BVM and got her in
to resus alive and just speaking. The decision was made quite quickly
that she had suffered "and intra abdominal catastrophe" which at 96
was going to be the end for her. Her family had followed us in and
were allowed in to say goodbye before she slipped away. I feel we did
the right thing in not aggressively treating her but enabling her
family to say goodbye.

The other one was far simpler - last seen at 0300 then found by
nursing home staff in arrest at 0600. No CPR attempted and hypostasis
evident. Lets get the DOA form.