HEARTBEATS RESTORED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22412, 7 May 1936, Page 8

HEARTBEATS RESTORED

[STRUGGLE FOR MAN'S LIFE PATIENT'S FULL RECOVERY A struggle extending over many tours to save the life of a man whose heart had, stopped beating on the operating table is described by Dr. J. iV. Fiddian, of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the British Medical Journal. The man ,was Mr. Ernest Hinsley, of Ashton-under-Lyne. He is now back at work jat a club. Dr. Fiddian states that the patient was a frail man, aged about 45. When he ceased to breathe, the "usual two or three minutes were wasted in fruitJess artificial respiration." Dr. Fiddian then adopted cardiac massage and continued this for at least two, minutes without feeling any spontaneous movement of the heart. When he was be'coming tired he injected intracardiac adrenaline into the ventricle. "The effect," ho adds, "was immediate and almost magical. It was several minutes more before spontaneous respiration was established, but after that there was no further immediate anxiety. The patient was returned to bed with his heart still beating tumultuousl.v, in a manner strongly suggestivo of overdosage of adrenaline." It was 48 hours before the patient recovered consciousness. At first lie was somewhat vacant, but six days later he was perfectly normal. Mr. Hinsley said subsequently: "Just before 1 became conscious I seemed to be floating about in a kind of corridor in a church. There was a light at one end and hundreds of people in shrouds seemed to be floating about." After recovering consciousness he found he could not see properly. "For a, week or two there was a sort of haze over my eyes," he said. "Then one night it seemed as if someone had lifted the top of my head and toy sight became normal. For about 10 weeks, while I was suffering from pneumonia, I seemed to have two bodies. It seemed as if one body was and .the pthejc by. jay. Bide/'