Alone and having a heart attack, man self-medicates and saves life in true MacGyver-like fashion
Male nurse hooked himself up to an electrocardiogram, then inserted intravenous lines in both arms to self-administer drugs including aspirin, blood thinners, painkillers and a clot-dissolving drug
Alone at a health clinic in a small, remote seaside settlement in Australia, a 44-year-old nurse sensed he was having a heart attack and sprang into action, saving his own life, a report said.
The man, whose name was withheld for privacy reasons, experienced severe chest pain and dizziness while he was the sole medical professional on duty at a nursing post in Coral Bay, more than 1,000 kilometres from Perth, the capital of Western Australia, said the account published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
With the next medical facility 150 kilometres away and no one else around to help, he hooked himself up to an electrocardiogram (EKG), which showed a complete heart block that may have been due to an evolving heart attack.
The man then performed another EKG on himself, which confirmed the diagnosis of a heart attack.
He emailed the results to a doctor via the Emergency Telehealth Service (ETS), and found an emergency doctor to talk with him via real-time video.
He attached his own defibrillator pads and prepared adrenaline, atropine, and amiodarone
Then, he inserted intravenous (IV) lines in both of his own arms and self-administered drugs including aspirin, blood thinners, painkillers and a clot-dissolving drug called tenecteplase.
