Riveting Video: How Teen Was Saved When Her Heart Failed
CATHERINE CAI: I'm just a normal 19-year-old born in China.
I like K-pop and I like going to the gym.
I like playing volleyball.
California is really, like, a well-known place
all around the world.
So I decided to come to California for college.
CATHERINE'S MOM: [SPEAKING CHINESE]
CATHERINE CAI: When I was walking to my psychology exam,
My chest started to feel really painful,
and then I cannot breathe well.
Luckily, my roommate found me and then
they called the ambulance, and then
the ambulance took me to Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento.
AMY SANCHEZ: When Catherine initially came in,
she was talking, so I thought for sure this girl
is going to be fine.
And all of a sudden, Catherine passes out.
We started compressions right away.
JULIE ADAMS: We had heard that she was an exchange student
and her family was out of the country.
At this point, we are her parents.
We're going to take care of her.
ZI-JIAN XU: When she was in cardiac arrest,
we saw this image.
We're like, oh my god.
Her heart is practically not working at all.
JULIE ADAMS: She was technically dead
without assistance for 52 minutes.
BALJIT SINGH GILL: If there was any time
that we were going to use ECMO, Catherine's case
would be the one to use it on.
JEFF PAILLON: We got her on the life support machine
as soon as we could, and she started
to turn around right away.
BALJIT SINGH GILL: Once we got her on ECMO,
we saw she's in a stable enough position
to do a coronary angiogram.
Our concern was that she might have significant inflammation
that caused her heart to fail.
And from there, we initiated heart transplant workup.
THOMAS RHODES: Immediately, our team got her to the cath lab,
where we quickly placed an Impella catheter to continue
to perfuse, circulate her body.
ZI-JIAN XU: This in the middle is
the Impella device that led Catherine's heart
right out the storm.
It's almost like a viral pneumonia.
You just wait and rest, and a few days later, the symptoms
go away.
THOMAS RHODES: Amazing, she walked out of the hospital
and the expertise of our team really made a difference
in her outcome.
ZI-JIAN XU: It is a miracle that she arrived at our center
at the right timing.
She is only alive because she was in our ER.
We're here today to celebrate the life of Catherine Cai, whose
life was nearly taken away from her
due to a rare cardiac condition called a fulminant myocarditis.
CATHERINE CAI: All of the doctors and nurses,
they made my family feel really cared and be loved.
It's hard for them to communicate because they
don't speak English.
JEFF PAILLON: Every night, when I would see them,
I would either use Google translate
or have the interpreter.
I tried to let them know that we were going
to do the best that we could for their daughter
every single minute that she was in here.
And that's what we did.
It was really a team approach from top to bottom,
and everyone had an equal hand in contributing
to the care of Catherine.
JULIE ADAMS: It was a once-in-a-lifetime career case.
You know, I'm not sure I'm ever going to see that again.
AMY SANCHEZ: When she left our department,
there were definitely tears and prayers for her
because we're momma bears.
We want to make sure all of our cubs are OK.
CATHERINE CAI: It changed a key point of my life.
Like, before, I was like study is really important.
GPA is really important to me, but now it's like, no,
life is more important.
It's important to be healthy and alive.
Also, to like, cherish my family and my friends and myself.
To all of the doctors and nurses and staffs, thank you so much.
And our whole family are just really grateful that you give me
my second life.
CATHERINE'S MOM: [SPEAKING CHINESE].
Thank you.
When AMR paramedic Rose Pangburn and intern Mohammed Kadid responded to a 911 call about a 19-year-old university student in Davis, they found Catherine Cai of China responsive but feeling dizzy and a little sick, stressing over her midterms. Then they put a heart monitor on her.
The first decision that saved Catherine Cai’s life was when AMR paramedic Rose Pangburn, front, and intern Mohammed Kadid determined her heart was failing and took her to Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento.
Her heart was failing.
“At that moment, I knew that this was not good, not good at all,” Pangburn says. “We knew we needed to get her to Sacramento as soon as possible.”
They decided to take Cai to the nearest hospital with advanced heart care: Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, 18 miles from the university. It was the first decision from medical professionals in just a couple of hours that saved her life.
Those decisions are told in a gripping new video that includes interviews from Cai, her mother, emergency nurses, specialty physicians and others that details all the events that led to what all are calling a medical miracle.
The video shows how, in the emergency room, Cai lost consciousness due to cardiac arrest, and the two decisions in the hospital that saved her life: One was to use a machine rarely if ever used in emergency rooms that brought her back to life, and another was the use of a tiny pump that allowed her heart to recover on its own even though the cardiovascular team was preparing her for a heart transplant. She walked out of the hospital, healthy and extremely happy.
None of this would’ve been possible if Pangburn and Kadid hadn’t taken Cai to Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, one of just a relative handful of U.S. hospitals to have achieved Certified Comprehensive Cardiac Center certification from The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association. Sutter Medical Center is the only hospital in the greater Sacramento area that has the certification and such high-level cardiovascular expertise.
“I work locally and I see all the capabilities of different hospitals, and Sutter Medical Center is the most organized, has the best teamwork and knows how to react with heart cases such as Catherine’s,” Pangburn said. “If any one thing was different in her care, Catherine would not be with us today.”
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