“I called 911 and then made my way down the stairs,” Russ recalls. “I had the 911 dispatcher on the phone with me, and I hung my feet out the carport door so the firefighters could see me. I was just sitting there. I didn’t think I could stand up.”
Paramedics transported Russ by ambulance to Surrey, where medical tests revealed a large blood clot in his lungs. He was quickly transferred to Royal Columbian Hospital.
“A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot that moves through the heart and into the pulmonary arteries where it blocks up a pulmonary artery,” explains Dr. Derek Gunning, a critical care physician at Royal Columbian Hospital. “If the clot is big enough, the right ventricle is not able to pump the blood through because there’s an obstruction to the flow of blood through the lungs.”
A pulmonary embolism not only causes trouble with the lungs, but it can also trigger a cardiac arrest. That’s what happened to Russ as an Interventional Radiology team removed the clots during a procedure called a pulmonary thrombectomy.
It was then that Russ was connected to ECMO, short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (and also known as ECLS), a specialized machine that takes over the function of the heart and lungs when a patient’s condition is rapidly deteriorating. The equipment provides oxygen to the blood and allows the body time to recover when cardiac or pulmonary failure may be reversible.
“After we stabilize people (on ECMO), we next have to determine if they have had a brain injury, are they going to be able to wake up, and are they going to be able to return to a normal functional life,” says Dr. Gunning. “And, unfortunately, on day one, we never know.”
Russ’s sister Andrea was terrified when she arrived at the hospital and saw the condition her brother was in. “It was hard seeing him with the breathing tube and hooked up to more machines,” she recalls. “But they (caregivers) explained everything. They were super welcoming, inclusive, and asked a lot of questions about Russ.”
As Royal Columbian cares for a high volume of seriously ill and injured patients, critical care at the hospital is undergoing a major expansion as part of the Jim Pattison Acute Care Tower. Level 4 of the new building is home to the Critical Care floor, with 47 ICU beds, 20 Cardiac Surgical beds, and 17 Cardiac Intensive Care beds. The entire floor is dedicated to intensive care services for some of the province’s most acutely ill patients.
Despite his grave condition, Russ responded remarkably well and was removed from ECMO before the end of the third day. He was discharged within a couple of weeks and soon returned to thank the medical team in person.
“All the doctors and nurses were astounded at how fast I recovered,” Russ notes about a month after leaving the hospital. “I didn’t realize just how sick I was until they would stop by and introduce themselves and say ‘you won’t remember me, but I was taking care of you when you were very sick.’ It’s a moment meeting someone for the first time and then realize they were part of a large team that saved my life.”
Russ has also now become a monthly donor to the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation. “To the doctors, nurses, ECMO technicians, physios, dietitians, and everyone from CSICU and ICU, I can’t thank you enough,” says Russ.
