In early March, a 53-year-old woman named Chen collapsed at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport while waiting to fly with her husband and daughter. Doctors nearby, including cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Eduard Quintana, rushed to her aid and performed CPR on the spot, saving her life before the medical team arrived.
Chen was later diagnosed with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition that causes the walls of the heart’s ventricles to thicken and obstruct blood flow. Dr. Quintana collaborated with Professor Wei Xiang at Wuhan Tongji Hospital to perform transapical beating myocardial ablation surgery, a minimally invasive procedure tailored for Chen’s condition.
After successful training and preparation, Chen underwent open-heart surgery and has since recovered. She expressed her gratitude to Dr. Quintana for his role in saving her life and called the events leading up to her surgery “fate.”
In recent years, China has been focusing on promoting CPR training among the public due to low percentages of people who know how to perform this life-saving procedure effectively. The success rate of CPR in saving lives during out-of-hospital heart attacks in China is less than 1%, which is significantly lower than that in developed countries. Efforts are being made to increase awareness and training to improve these numbers and save more lives in the future.
