Quick-acting UAE paramedics give new lease of life to elderly woman

Abu Dhabi - She was among the 32 patients with heart problems who have been saved by the paramedics over the past six months this year.

A 70-year-old woman with acute heart failure, triggered by a heart disease, was saved in the nick of time by a medical team from the National Ambulance.
The ambulance crew rushed to the home of the elderly Indian woman in Ajman earlier this year after being notified by her relatives. They found her in a critical condition as her heart had stopped beating.
The paramedics carried out Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and managed to restore the patient's heartbeat. The woman started breathing normally again and was taken to a hospital in Ajman.
The elderly woman was among the 32 patients with heart problems who have been saved by the National Ambulance medical team over the past six months this year.
In all these case, the team swung into action, carried out rapid emergency intervention and CPR to give a new lease of life to the patients - with support from their colleagues in the operating theater.
A medical practitioner, working with the National Ambulance who had participated in treating the Indian woman, said that saving a patient's life brings joy, especially when he/she on the brink of death.
"A person with a heart failure swings between life and death. Such a patient may lose life if he/she don't receive emergency care at the right time," she said.
"I and my colleagues in the medical team provided the necessary emergency care to the old woman. The team succeeded in restoring the patient's pulse before she was rushed to the hospital."
She noted that cardiac arrest can easily cause death, but the rapid response by National Ambulance to provide CPR to patients in emergency situations helps to save lives.
The latest statistics released by the National Ambulance early this year showed that since 2014, the performance of the emergency ambulance service has improved. It received over 290,000 calls, responded to 200,000 incidents and treated more than 179,000 patients.
In 2018, the National Ambulance said it received 74,329 calls, with an average of 200 calls a day. While call counts and patients treated have risen considerably, the response time has fallen by 48 per cent from 18 minutes and 12 seconds in February 2014 to 8 minutes and 29 seconds in December 2018. The National Ambulance has also maintained an average response time of less than 9 minutes in the past three years.
- ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• UAE