For Abu Dhabi doctors, colleague’s recovery after heart attack is a ‘miracle’

Mohmed Noshi was resuscitated for nearly an hour by his colleagues at SKMC, and is now back to normal after a rare full recovery.

Mohmed Noshi, who survived two heart attacks thanks to the medical team at SKMC who resuscitated him. Vidhyaa for The National

ABU DHABI // It is something of a miracle that Mohmed Noshi is still alive.

The 52-year-old Egyptian not only survived two heart attacks and failure of his lungs, kidney, bowel and intestines, but doctors said he had fully recovered after nearly an hour of resuscitation and 22 electrical shocks to revive him.

Patients who suffer from long periods of cardiac arrest are usually left with a permanent disability. But Mr Noshi, a translator for the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City A&E department, is back to normal despite the damage done to his organs a few months ago.

“The miracle is that, after so many complications and such a long period of cardiac arrest, Mr Noshi has fully recovered and suffers no permanent physical or mental disabilities,” said Dr Abdul Razzak Al Kaddour, consultant physician at SKMC.

Mr Noshi was working out in the gym last October when he felt heart palpitations. He drove to the A&E unit at SKMC and collapsed at the front desk.

“I don’t remember anything else,” said Mr Noshi, a father of five.

The emergency team were in shock as they worked to revive their colleague, said Safiya Fatih, senior charge nurse and A&E unit manager.

“Even while we were resuscitating him, it was emotional,” she said. She had to ask some nurses to leave. “Those who remained were asked if they could handle the situation and not let their emotions get in the way,” she said. “You remember that that person was alive and well a few minutes ago, and now he’s lying in emergency.”

There is no set time for resuscitation, and it is a call doctors make as a team, said Dr Abdulmajeed Al Zubaidi, chief medical officer and consultant interventional cardiologist at SKMC. A previous patient required more than 71 electrical shocks.

Because Mr Noshi arrived early, when he lost consciousness a team could start chest compressions and electrical shocks, said Dr Al Zubaidi. Resuscitating him was the easy part, said Dr Al Kaddour. Mr Noshi had a second heart attack the following day, followed by multiple organ failure. Doctors then discovered he had intestinal gangrene and had to remove part of his intestine.

Their colleague would spend almost three months in hospital.

“We had a complete team of surgeons taking care of Noshi, from cardiologists and a nephrologist to rehabilitation therapists, so we were confident that he would recover, but we are surprised that he would recover with absolutely no damage,” Dr Al Kaddour said.

There was such support for their colleague, who had worked in A&E since 2010, that an email was sent to restrict visiting.

“Everyone wanted to visit. It was such a strain on the department that they asked visitors to come one at a time,” Ms Fatih said.

Mr Noshi hopes to return to work by the end of the month. He now weighs 66 kilograms, having lost 20kg.

“I feel fine. There is no pain,” he said. “I lost a lot of weight because they removed 22 centimetres of my colon.”

In a way, he said, the episode saved his life.

“The gangrene was not a side-effect of the heart attack. If I hadn’t had the heart attack, then they wouldn’t have discovered it, and I would have died,” Mr Noshi said.

His wife, Anat Yousef, said she thought her husband’s survival was a miracle.

“We prayed and prayed, and thanks to Him and the team at SKMC, my husband is sitting with me now,” she said.