A 17-year-old girl almost died last summer after a sudden viral infection in her heart caused her to go into cardiac arrest for 42 minutes before doctors managed to do so. in extremis to resuscitate her and then treat her.
“You can’t imagine experiencing this in your life,” confides Rebecca Charland, still upset. It was a shock.”
“Intensive care is a roller coaster ride,” admits his mother, Marie-France Provost, still emotional. The miracle is that the staff never gave up.”
The teenager has finally been back home since November 2, after spending more than three months at the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MUHC).
Always in great shape and passionate about dance, Rebecca’s life took a tragic turn on July 18.
“It’s too serious”
Intense headaches, loss of consciousness: the teenager found herself at the Anna-Laberge Hospital in Châteauguay. Diagnosis: urinary infection which had reached the kidneys. She was sent home with antibiotics. But two days later, the young woman from Sainte-Catherine, on the South Shore of Montreal, was not doing better.
Back at the hospital, his condition deteriorated dramatically. Low blood pressure, difficulty breathing, heart pain.
“The doctor told me: ‘It’s the heart, it’s too serious. We can’t treat her here,'” the mother recalls.
Rushed by ambulance to the MUHC, her life was threatened.
“It was a nightmare for the whole family,” recalls Dr.r Conall Francoeur, pediatric intensivist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. His life was clearly in danger.”
Dr. Conall Francoeur
Photo courtesy, MUHC
In fact, Rebecca had caught a virus that caused inflammation of her heart (myocarditis). Usually, these viruses cause simple colds or coughs.
Upon arrival, doctors agreed that she should receive help from the ECMO machine, which acts as an external heart support.
But, during the procedure, Rebecca suffered a cardiac arrest. 42 minutes.
“It’s unimaginable,” says his mother, her eyes in the water. We said to ourselves: 42 minutes, his brain is definitely affected. I couldn’t believe we were going to bury our daughter.”
On this subject, the Dr Francoeur emphasizes that the resuscitation conditions were, however, optimal.
“Yes, 42 minutes is a long time, but we were still a team ready for high-quality massage and resuscitation. She had a good chance of recovering, he explains, also highlighting the work of a large team with cutting-edge expertise. If we hadn’t managed to put her on ECMO, she would have died.”
However, two days later, ECMO was no longer able to compensate for the weakness of his heart, and blood was no longer flowing to his extremities. His pulse was so weak that the monitor read: zero.
His close family (little brother, big sister, boyfriend) were even called to his bedside to say goodbye.
Shock the heart
“There is no longer an organ that functions,” recalls his mother, moved.
At this point, however, the doctors offered a final attempt: they shocked his heart a few times.
“The heart wasn’t doing well, but they were hoping he would recover,” his mother said. But we didn’t want to be relentless.”
Against all expectations, Rebecca’s heart finally improved in the following days, and she came out of the coma after 11 days. Great relief: she had no brain damage.
“I thought I knew what stress was!” laughs her mother, who stopped working to take care of her daughter temporarily.
Rebecca still lives today with complications from a leg infection that prevents her from walking normally, but she has recovered. Even if she does not know if she will be able to resume her studies soon, the one who wants to be a teacher is very grateful to the hospital staff, who treated her with great care.
“I could have died. In life, there is better, but there is worse,” consoles Rebecca, who wears a subcutaneous defibrillator and a pacemaker (pacemaker) temporary.
