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‘Miracle’ survivor: Camosun student revived by Victoria medical team

The miraculous survival and recovery of a Victoria student whose heart repeatedly stopped beating as the result of a massive blood clot in her lungs, is a testament to Victoria’s medical community, her parents say.
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Paige Young, a Victoria student who almost died of a pulmonary embolism, with her parents, Sandy and Gary Young, at Royal Jubilee Hospital.

The miraculous survival and recovery of a Victoria student whose heart repeatedly stopped beating as the result of a massive blood clot in her lungs, is a testament to Victoria’s medical community, her parents say.

Paige Young, a 22-year-old creative writing student at Camosun College, was admitted to Victoria General Hospital at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 7.

She was “unresponsive and taking her last gasps of breath,” said emergency room physician Dr. Sean Henry. Her roommates had called an ambulance after she fell faint.

“Almost every five minutes, we were having to do CPR because, almost like clockwork, her heart would stop,” Henry said.

“The more times that would happen, the more often I’d think, ‘This is the last time.’ ”

The physician was encouraged to continue the seemingly futile resuscitation because of the woman’s young age and the fact that each time her heart was revived her limbs would move — not in a uncontrollable jerk, but in a purposeful manner that indicated high brain function.

The ER team was so consumed with repeatedly dragging Young back from the brink of death there was little time or ability to properly diagnose the cause.

Symptoms, combined with the patient’s age, suggested a drug overdose, but she was not responding to medications.

Increasingly, the culprit seemed to be a massive pulmonary embolism — usually the bane of the elderly, and usually lethal.

For proper diagnosis, Henry needed a CT scan, but with the patient’s heart constantly stopping, that was impossible. The inconclusive results of blood tests and an MRI brain scan suggested a massive blood clot in the lungs. The medical team gambled and used the highly effective but high-risk clot-busting medication tPA (tissue plasminogen activator).

“We had exhausted all of our other options,” Henry said.

“We felt at that point, after 90 minutes to 120 minutes into resuscitation, there wasn’t anything to lose.”

Twenty minutes later, Young began to stabilize, but the ordeal was far from over.

“After I stabilized her I had bad thoughts like, what had we done this for, and would this still be a really bad outcome, would she die in the intensive care unit,” Henry said.

The physician had to call Young’s parents Gary, 62, and Sandy, 58, in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The Youngs had known their daughter was having problems with nausea and shortness of breath but a chest X-ray did not reveal a problem.

“They were pretty disbelieving she could be that sick,” Henry said. He had to impress on them their daughter could die any minute.

“I couldn’t imagine being in their shoes and how devastating that was for them,” he said.

“I felt their sorrow. They were pleading with me over the phone to do everything I could to keep her alive.”

That Young survived a massive pulmonary embolism combined with prolonged resuscitation and blood-clot busting drugs — which can cause internal bleeding and hemorrhaging — with no apparent brain damage and no major organ damage is profound, Henry said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s unheard of in my experience,” said Henry, who has worked more than 20 years as an ER doctor in Canada’s busiest trauma rooms.

“This is a special and miraculous recovery.”

The many professionals involved in Young’s case — Dr. Bilal Mir assisted Henry while two other ER physicians managed the rest of the department — are still revelling in Young’s recovery.

So are her parents. Gary and Sandy Young cry as they try to express their gratitude.

The couple will be in Victoria over Christmas — missing their eldest daughter’s destination wedding in January — to care for Paige, who has been moved to Royal Jubilee Hospital.

“I don’t know how to thank everybody,” said Gary, choking back emotion. “I just thought someone should know about Victoria, how great it is. I just want to share my appreciation for the doctors and nurses.”

The parents shook Henry’s hand at their daughter’s bedside Wednesday.

For the physician, joy comes with sober reflection. “I can’t help but think over and over in my mind how close we were not to carrying on with resuscitation,” Henry said.

“It almost scares me how close we were to saying it’s futile.”

charnett@timescolonist.com