A 53-year-old woman named Chen suffered a cardiac arrest at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in early March while waiting to fly with her husband and daughter. Luckily, Doctor Eduard Quintana, a cardiovascular surgeon on his way back to Spain, was on hand to help. He performed CPR on the spot and successfully restarted the woman’s heart before the medical team arrived.
After being diagnosed with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at the hospital, Ms. Chen required open heart surgery. Doctor Quintana, who had been training at Wuhan Tongji Hospital on a minimally invasive surgical method, collaborated with Professor Wei Xiang to perform the surgery on Ms. Chen. The open surgery was successful, and Ms. Chen recovered well, attributing the events to fate.
Recent studies have shown that China has been promoting CPR training among the public in an effort to improve its low success rate of CPR in saving lives during out-of-hospital heart attacks compared to 10% in developed countries. Doctor Quintana’s heroic act and successful surgery on Ms. Chen serve as a testament to the importance of CPR training and quick medical intervention in life-threatening situations.
