No more butts for this smoker in UAE after his heart stops nine times

Abu Dhabi - Doctors at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi's emergency section called it "an extraordinary case".

It took a near-death experience for 59-year-old Adel Mahmoud Shawqi to give up smoking for good. The Abu Dhabi resident suffered a massive heart attack and had to be revived not once nor twice - but nine times.
Doctors at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi's emergency section called it "an extraordinary case".
Dr Jacques Kobersy, chairman of the hospital's Emergency Medicine Institute, said the patient was brought to the ER just a few minutes after he experienced chest pains at home. But suddenly, he lost his pulse, stopped breathing, and went into a 'life-threatening' heart rhythm.
"We immediately started CPR and performed multiple rounds of ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) with medications, chest compressions and repeated defibrillator shocks. We would restart his heart with the defibrillator shock, but then he would again lose his pulse and arrest."
Dr Kobersy said the man lost his pulse repeatedly and it took a total of nine shocks to stabilise him and treat him for the heart attack.
A heavy smoker, Egyptian national Adel confessed to smoking 45 to 60 cigarettes a day. He had previously survived two strokes. This particular heart attack, however, was unlike anything else he had experienced. It was traumatic, he said.
"That morning, I got up for my prayers but I couldn't pray as I felt extremely weak. There was a strange heaviness in my chest, so I went back to sleep," Adel recalled.
"I got up an hour later with the pain in my chest and I felt I was having another stroke, so I asked my wife to call an ambulance. I was fine when I arrived at the hospital, but then I lost consciousness," he told Khaleej Times.
Emergency care
In the ambulance, paramedics immediately conducted an electrocardiogram (ECG) and told the hospital team to prepare for a procedure to remove a blockage, Dr. Kobersy said.
After successfully stabilising Adel and inserting a breathing tube into his throat, he was brought to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory where doctors placed a stent in his blocked artery. A pump was also inserted to help his weakened heart.
Though he was brought to the ICU in critical condition, Adel made a "miraculous recovery" and was able to get off the breathing tube and heart pump in just a few days. He was discharged from the hospital within two weeks.
Never again
Adel, who works at the GIS mapping section of the General Administration of Civil Defence Abu Dhabi, knew for sure that it was his excessive smoking and sedentary lifestyle that got him to a near-death experience. Since then, he has pledged to turn his life around.

"I pledge to never smoke again and I have also told my two sons - who are 30 and 32 - to reduce smoking and eventually kick the butt for good," he said.
"I have also promised to spread awareness about the hazards of smoking to whomever I interact with. I thank the Cleveland hospital doctors and, of course, God for giving me a second chance at life."
saman@khaleejtimes.com 

• Abu Dhabi