A pregnant woman suddenly had amniotic fluid embolism. At the critical moment, the doctor used a catheter to save her life.

We had just finished an appendectomy operation and were waiting in the operating room for the next patient to come in.

Suddenly, a call from the operating room next door caught our attention.

After opening the door of the operating room, you can clearly hear the nurse shouting: Come quickly, operating room No. 3 needs rescue!

When the word "rescue" was heard, everyone rushed to operating room No. 3.

Everyone knows that if someone needs to be called in the operating room, it must be a very critical situation. If it is a common problem, the anesthesiologist can handle it alone.

Entering operating room No. 3, looking at the obstetrician on the stage and the newborn baby in the incubator, we all guessed what was going on.

Looking at the monitor again, the extremely fast heart rate, almost unmeasurable blood pressure and very low blood oxygen levels clearly pointed to a disease - amniotic fluid embolism.

After a brief communication with the anesthesiologist on duty, we all agreed on the diagnosis of amniotic fluid embolism.

Amniotic fluid is the fluid in the amniotic cavity during pregnancy. Amniotic fluid embolism is a process in which amniotic fluid enters the mother's blood circulation, causing a series of pathological and physiological changes such as pulmonary hypertension, hypoxia, and multiple organ failure.

Considering the impending deterioration of vital signs, we immediately changed the patient's neuraxial anesthesia to general anesthesia.

With the respiratory support of general anesthesia, we can at least hold one line, breathing and circulation, and have the opportunity to devote all our efforts to hold the other line.

With the guarantee of ventilation by ventilator and endotracheal tube, our main task in breathing is to increase ventilation efficiency through means such as antispasmodics.

Although her blood oxygen level was still very low, we were not afraid at all. All we had to do was to save this pregnant woman from the hands of death.

However, the distance between our thoughts and reality made us gradually feel "exhausted": despite our efforts to give us intravenous drips and blood transfusions, the heavy bleeding on the stage caused our cycle, which had just started to improve, to collapse again.

As the coagulation function became further disturbed, everyone's confidence fell to the bottom.

At this time, the surgeon who was pinching the uterine artery said immediately: Hurry up and get me a catheter!

In this situation where everyone was at a loss, no one would ask anything. The questions that had just arisen were also suppressed by the tense atmosphere at the scene.

After the surgeon handed over the task of pinching the uterine artery to his assistant, he lifted the surgical towel covering the patient's leg.

From the shocked expressions on everyone's faces, it can be seen that everyone is wondering: It's already this time, is the catheterization so important?

Although there were doubts, everyone could only cooperate silently.

During the disinfection, everyone discovered the problem: the surgeon did not disinfect the perineum where the catheter should be inserted, but instead disinfected the groin.

The scalpel went in with a "pop" sound, and a hole suddenly appeared on her leg. Instantly, a stream of blood "sprayed" onto her body.

At that time, we were all shocked: we didn’t expect that this weak woman could have such great power!

Then, she clamped the tip of the catheter with hemostatic forceps and inserted it in with a "pop".

As the catheter was inserted, blood was still bubbling out from around the tube. But now everyone understood what he was trying to do.

After the catheter was fully inserted, she took the syringe handed to her by the nurse.

As a tube of saline was injected, the bleeding around the tube stopped abruptly.

Before anyone could react to what was happening, the surgeon quickly returned to the stage.

Then, she took away the assistant's hand that was pinching the uterine artery and said: You go and tell the family about the hysterectomy, and everyone else get ready for the hysterectomy.

Looking back at this young mother who was only in her 20s, we all felt very sorry for her. But we all knew that we did this to save her life.

After the family members signed, the surgeon quickly completed the hysterectomy.

Below the stage, as the catheter was inserted into the artery, the blood pressure slowly rose.

Although the blood gas analysis is still red, we know that we have achieved a staged victory. Amniotic fluid embolism, as long as the breathing and circulation are stabilized, we have a chance to win this victory!

After the operation, the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit for further treatment.

The next day, good news came: the patient's indicators were all good and he would be ready for extubation later.

At this point, we can finally put our minds at ease!