--- title: "Riveting Video: How Teen Was Saved When Her Heart Failed | Sutter Health" description: "Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento care teams quickly partnered to save the life of Catherine Cai, a teen from China." url: "https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/riveting-video-how-teen-was-saved-when-her-heart-failed-2023563865" --- 1. [Home](https://www.sutterhealth.org/) / 2. [Patient Stories](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories) / 3. Riveting Video: How Teen Was Saved When Her Heart Failed # Riveting Video: How Teen Was Saved When Her Heart Failed Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento * * * 2024 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. ![Two paramedics](http://a.mktgcdn.com/p/BmcnbGUEa4Jf_1VUskFh3HLTRzWMiDYuAaPJm1ARtZU/732x881.jpg) 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](https://bcove.video/3VJXBg5) 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](https://vitals.sutterhealth.org/sutter-medical-center-awarded-highest-certification-for-its-cardiac-program/) 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.” ## Discover similar stories Choose a service topic below to read more stories like this one. [Emergency](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories?verticalKey=patient_story&facets=%5B%7B%22i%22%3A%22c_services.name%22%2C%22v%22%3A%5B%22Emergency%22%5D%7D%5D)[Heart and vascular](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories?verticalKey=patient_story&facets=%5B%7B%22i%22%3A%22c_services.name%22%2C%22v%22%3A%5B%22Heart+and+vascular%22%5D%7D%5D) ## Your Partners in Heart Health Your cardiovascular health can’t wait. Come to us for advanced heart care, from blood pressure management to transplants. [Request a Referral](https://www.sutterhealth.org/referrals) ## Related articles [View all articles](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories) - Patient story ### [Good Samaritans Save Bicyclist’s Life With CPR](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/good-samaritans-save-bicyclists-life-with-cpr-2023563940) Time is critical when the heart stops and sometimes a good Samaritan or two makes all the difference. - Patient story ### [Watchman Implant Gives Winemaker Cause To Celebrate](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/watchman-implant-gives-winemaker-cause-to-celebrate-1042868321) Taking blood thinners gave Harry Parsley a brain bleed. A tiny heart implant put him back on track within two weeks. - Patient story ### [Another miracle for war hero: New tool clears carotid arteries](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/another-miracle-for-war-hero-new-tool-clears-carotid-arteries-2023563922) Vic Patkowski has endured several brushes with death through his life. His latest lifesaver was a tool called TCAR. [View all articles](https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories) ## Disclaimer _Each individual’s treatment and/or results may vary based upon circumstances and the healthcare provider’s medical judgment. Testimonials or statements made by any person(s) within this site are not intended to guarantee outcomes or substitute for medical advice._ ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"MedicalOrganization","name":"Sutter Health","@id":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/#medicalorganization","url":"https://www.sutterhealth.org","logo":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/static/images/sutter-health-logo.svg","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"2200 River Plaza Drive","addressLocality":"Sacramento","addressRegion":"CA","postalCode":"95833","addressCountry":"US"},"areaServed":{"@type":"AdministrativeArea","name":"California"},"sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/SutterHealth","https://www.instagram.com/sutterhealth/","https://x.com/SutterHealth","https://www.youtube.com/sutterhealth","https://www.linkedin.com/company/sutter-health","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutter_Health"]} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/riveting-video-how-teen-was-saved-when-her-heart-failed-2023563865#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patient Stories","item":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Riveting Video: How Teen Was Saved When Her Heart Failed"}]} ``` ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","@id":"https://www.sutterhealth.org/patient-stories/riveting-video-how-teen-was-saved-when-her-heart-failed-2023563865#videoobject","name":"Cardiac Arrest at 19: How ECMO Saved an Exchange Student's Life","inLanguage":"en-US","thumbnailUrl":"https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/static/817826402001/be23460a-5924-4986-9bd2-df013c817300/7a80fb8c-9fb8-441b-b49d-83629a60e9e5/1280x720/match/image.jpg","uploadDate":"2024-06-17T06:23:03.271Z","embedUrl":"https://players.brightcove.net/817826402001/79bcaa57-54d7-453c-9f1f-8ab3ef7b15de/index.html?videoId=6354868080112","description":"China student Catherine Cai, 19, was walking to class when she suffered a life-threatening heart attack. She was rushed to Sutter Medical Center, the Sacramento region’s comprehensive cardiac center. That decision saved Catherine’s life. ","duration":"PT4M2S","transcript":"[UPBEAT MUSIC]\nCATHERINE CAI: I'm just a normal 19-year-old born in China.\nI like K-pop and I like going to the gym.\nI like playing volleyball.\nCalifornia is really, like, a well-known place\nall around the world.\nSo I decided to come to California for college.\nCATHERINE'S MOM: [SPEAKING CHINESE]\nCATHERINE CAI: When I was walking to my psychology exam,\nMy chest started to feel really painful,\nand then I cannot breathe well.\nLuckily, my roommate found me and then\nthey called the ambulance, and then\nthe ambulance took me to Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento.\nAMY SANCHEZ: When Catherine initially came in,\nshe was talking, so I thought for sure this girl\nis going to be fine.\nAnd all of a sudden, Catherine passes out.\nWe started compressions right away.\nJULIE ADAMS: We had heard that she was an exchange student\nand her family was out of the country.\nAt this point, we are her parents.\nWe're going to take care of her.\nZI-JIAN XU: When she was in cardiac arrest,\nwe saw this image.\nWe're like, oh my god.\nHer heart is practically not working at all.\nJULIE ADAMS: She was technically dead\nwithout assistance for 52 minutes.\nBALJIT SINGH GILL: If there was any time\nthat we were going to use ECMO, Catherine's case\nwould be the one to use it on.\nJEFF PAILLON: We got her on the life support machine\nas soon as we could, and she started\nto turn around right away.\nBALJIT SINGH GILL: Once we got her on ECMO,\nwe saw she's in a stable enough position\nto do a coronary angiogram.\nOur concern was that she might have significant inflammation\nthat caused her heart to fail.\nAnd from there, we initiated heart transplant workup.\nTHOMAS RHODES: Immediately, our team got her to the cath lab,\nwhere we quickly placed an Impella catheter to continue\nto perfuse, circulate her body.\nZI-JIAN XU: This in the middle is\nthe Impella device that led Catherine's heart\nright out the storm.\nIt's almost like a viral pneumonia.\nYou just wait and rest, and a few days later, the symptoms\ngo away.\nTHOMAS RHODES: Amazing, she walked out of the hospital\nand the expertise of our team really made a difference\nin her outcome.\nZI-JIAN XU: It is a miracle that she arrived at our center\nat the right timing.\nShe is only alive because she was in our ER.\nWe're here today to celebrate the life of Catherine Cai, whose\nlife was nearly taken away from her\ndue to a rare cardiac condition called a fulminant myocarditis.\nCATHERINE CAI: All of the doctors and nurses,\nthey made my family feel really cared and be loved.\nIt's hard for them to communicate because they\ndon't speak English.\nJEFF PAILLON: Every night, when I would see them,\nI would either use Google translate\nor have the interpreter.\nI tried to let them know that we were going\nto do the best that we could for their daughter\nevery single minute that she was in here.\nAnd that's what we did.\n\nIt was really a team approach from top to bottom,\nand everyone had an equal hand in contributing\nto the care of Catherine.\nJULIE ADAMS: It was a once-in-a-lifetime career case.\nYou know, I'm not sure I'm ever going to see that again.\nAMY SANCHEZ: When she left our department,\nthere were definitely tears and prayers for her\nbecause we're momma bears.\nWe want to make sure all of our cubs are OK.\n\nCATHERINE CAI: It changed a key point of my life.\nLike, before, I was like study is really important.\nGPA is really important to me, but now it's like, no,\nlife is more important.\nIt's important to be healthy and alive.\nAlso, to like, cherish my family and my friends and myself.\n\nTo all of the doctors and nurses and staffs, thank you so much.\nAnd our whole family are just really grateful that you give me\nmy second life.\nCATHERINE'S MOM: [SPEAKING CHINESE].\nThank you."} ``` ```json 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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.”"} ```