Doctor Roberts Fūrmanis shares story of colleagues saving a patient's life together
Emergency medicine doctor Roberts Fūrmanis described on social media how medical staff from two shifts jointly resuscitated a patient who deteriorated during a shift change. He stresses the importance of teams and urges that they be protected.
Roberts Fūrmanis, who works at an Emergency Medicine Centre and its intensive care ward, has posted on social media a story about how his colleagues jointly saved a patient's life. The post has moved thousands of readers, and in it the author stresses that the value of a hospital lies in its people and the teams they have built.
What happened at the shift change
According to Fūrmanis, the event took place at 7:58, when one shift at the Emergency Medicine Centre ends and the next begins. The responsible nurse of the previous shift entered the intensive care ward and said that a patient had become unwell. Colleagues were already performing resuscitation, and the patient showed no signs of life.
Both shifts rushed to help, including staff who should already have been heading home. They carried out resuscitation, heart rhythm monitoring and defibrillation, and administered medication. After several minutes the patient's heartbeat returned, and breathing and movement appeared.
Continued treatment
The patient was urgently taken to the intensive care ward, where treatment continued, the airways were secured and mechanical lung ventilation was started. Colleagues from cardiology intensive care also joined, and together they agreed on further treatment. The patient's condition was stabilised, though the threat to life had not yet passed. The patient was then moved to the next stage of emergency care. Fūrmanis notes that he does not know the patient's further fate.
A call to protect teams
The author compares the work to the mechanism of a Swiss watch, in which everyone has a role regardless of position. He writes that such a team cannot be created by decree or bought; it forms over years, based on respect and trust. Fūrmanis urges that such teams be protected, supported and valued, saying a hospital is first of all its people, and he thanks his colleagues for their professionalism.
