DURBAN- Miriam Nkwanyana does not remember much after feeling dizzy in Durban - and that was because she was dead.
But luckily for the 58-year-old KwaMashu resident, help was at hand and she was brought back to life.
Nkwanyana was shopping in central Durban recently, when she told her son, Hlalani, that she was not feeling well. He took her to a pharmacy, but had to leave.
Nkwanyana then collapsed from total cardiac arrest and a doctor, who was called from his nearby rooms, started CPR, while someone called Netcare 911 paramedics Ruan Joubert, Cameron Smit and Siyabonga Cele.
“They started advanced life support resuscitation, put her on a ventilator, gave her intravenous fluids and cardiac drugs,” said Netcare 911 spokesperson Chris Botha.
They did CPR for 30 minutes, giving their patient shock treatment 10 times.
Nkwanyana - who was “totally dead” for more than half an hour - eventually showed signs of life
“Her heart started beating again and she started breathing spontaneously. They took her to St Augustine’s Hospital, where she was admitted to the medical intensive care unit,” Botha said.
An angiogram confirmed what the paramedics already knew: their patient had experienced an acute heart attack.
Now transferred to the cardiac-thoracic ward in the hospital, the mother of five and grandmother of nine said yesterday that she did not know what had happened that day.
“I only remember coming to the hospital. They are treating me like gold. I have to thank everyone who helped. If it wasn’t for them, I would be dead.”
Botha said that the early CPR given by the doctor definitely contributed to the patient’s eventual resuscitation.
Joubert said that it was the second time in two months that he had brought a patient back from the dead.
“The thing about CPR is that sometimes the patient survives, but passes away a day or two later from lack of oxygen to the brain and heart muscles. If they survive after 24 or 48 hours, then it is very successful,” he explained.