Posted by idiopathicVfib on 10/23/2018

March 27, 2016 started out just like any other day.It was Easter Sunday 6:30 am.I put water on the stove for coffee and then well....I hit the floor, apparently with enough force to jar my wife from her sleep. Usually she would roll over at this hour and go back to sleep, but not this morning. She instinctively got up to check out whatever it was she had heard and that's when she found me lying in the kitchen floor mostly unresponsive, unable to speak or move. She immediately ran to get her phone, called 911, and upon returning to the kitchen she discovered that I had managed to flip myself over on to my face and she couldn't roll me back over, so she ran out and down the stairs beating on the walls as she went yelling for our neighbor. Jeremiah bounded up the stairs and said "What can I do?" roll him over, she said, upon which she put 2 aspirins under my tongue (still not knowing what was happening) and began CPR.( Which she was never certified, but had a mandatory employee class some 26+ years earlier.) The EMT's arrived shortly thereafter (about 2-3 minutes) and took over my emergency medical situation. I was in the grips of a seizure from SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST....Now I must say here I have no, zero, recollection of these events, but I have described them as they were told to me by my very brave and courageous wife. MY HERO!!! I was taken to Bay Area hospital on the Oregon coast where I was immediately placed in a therapeutic hypothermia suit and in a medically induced coma.Apparently the 4 times I had been defibrillated in the kitchen floor had not been effective in retuning me to spontaneous circulation or I had not regained consciousness afterward.
I stayed in a coma for 5 days and upon waking on Friday I suffered between 20-30 more episodes where defibrillation was required. We still had no known cause for these events, although numerous tests had been performed while I was under.Everyone seemed to be getting somewhat concerned as we were running out of options.They decided that they had done all that they could do and the decision was made to fly me to Rogue Regional Medical Center. I received at least 2 more defibrillation's on the plane and again on the ground in route to the hospital and numerous more times in the ccu. I thank GOD for Dr.David Martin an electro-physiologist cardiologist in Medford who in his wisdom...and a bit of luck (his words) hit on the right combination of medications to quell the cardiac storm that I was experiencing. 5 more days in the hospital and I was sent home with a Zoll life vest and some new prescriptions.about 2 weeks later I had an ICD implant at mercy hospital in Eugene Or. by another EP Dr. Ramakota Reddy. In conclusion I would like to say THANK YOU to everyone that had a hand in my survival and recovery. May GOD BLESS YOU ALL for all the selfless acts of kindness and dedicated professionalism that each of you exhibited during my ordeal.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Martin

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