Singapore: When a heavily-pregnant woman suffers a cardiac arrest in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and is not responding to cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a “Code Red” message sounds through the public announcement system, activating a team trained in performing resuscitation on pregnant women.Assigning a dedicated response code for such emergencies is a first in hospitals here.
Although maternal cardiac arrest is very rare, no statistics are available on incidences here, resuscitation is more challenging due to anatomical and physiological changes during pregnancy, noted Dr Deepak Mathur, who led the implementation of the code last month.
Code Red is activated for mothers carrying babies past the 20-week gestation mark, and medical response personnel involve those in obstetrics, gynaecology, women’s anaesthesia and neonatology, as well as a midwife. |
