The Lady Gaga call: Memorable responses in 2011
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| Editor's note: Crystal Thornton couldn't wait to see Lady Gaga at Bridgestone Arena in April. Then she "died." She was clinically dead for 10 minutes before paramedics were able to revive her at the arena. In this end-of-year feature for EMS1, the responders involved look back on their most memorable call of 2011. |
By Jerry Jones, MPA, EMT-IV
Public Affairs Manager and Event Medicine Supervisor
Vanderbilt LifeFlight
The call came in as a patient having seizures, and within less than a minute we arrived on the scene to find a young lady in full cardiac arrest.
With the help of Bridgestone Security, the patient was moved out of the seating area and into the main concourse.
CPR was started, and Paramedic Shane Clark and other team members started care, which included applying an AED. A shock was administered and CPR was continued. In less than 15 minutes from the time the call was received, the patient was at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Emergency Department. Cooling therapy was begun and, days later, the patient was discharged from the hospital.
While in the hospital she was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) that will automatically restore her heartbeat should she ever experience another cardiac arrest. Since having the device implanted, it has revived her once.
Lady Gaga had flowers delivered to Crystal while she was at Vanderbilt, and wished her a speedy recovery.
Since then, Crystal has continued to do well, and even surprised some of us at a recent Nashville Predators game. She was presented with a Nashville Predators jersey by the team mascot, GNASH, and got to meet several team members that responded to her call.
She does not remember the night at all, thankfully. She has had her feet tattooed with "a second chance at life" and the date of the incident.
Crystal's case highlighted the importance of having rapid access to an automated external defibrillator, and Bridgestone Arena responded by installing 12 portable AEDs in public areas.
Since then LifeFlight Event Medicine has responded to one other cardiac arrest at a Vanderbilt Football game, and the results from that incident again stress the importance of rapid response with an AED. Before he was placed in the ambulance, he asked what the score of the game was.
