Carrie Fisher suffers heart attack on plane, dies at age 60*

They are saying a massive heart attack. Hope she pulls out of it. Dam 2016.

 

The more I hear the less likely it seems that she will pull out of this. Cognitively, 10 minutes without oxygen is not good even with CPR.

 

Ive seen longer down time with subsequent recovery but anoxic brain injury is likely. The quality of the CPR is paramount as noted above, but that is also without knowing the level of ischemia from the MI itself

 

Her brother Todd told AP that she is out of emergency and stabilized.

News from The Associated Press »

 

I keep updating my news sources hoping for some kind of update. I can't even put into words how I'm feeling about this news. Along with Wonder Woman, Princess Leia was one of my childhood heros, she showed that women could be strong and kick a$$. I'm not ready to lose another bit of my childhood this year

 

Stay strong Carrie! We love you!

 

I love General Leia, but I think Carrie Fisher is a real-life badass. She's the nutty aunt I've never had but have always wanted.

 

She's such a great wit. Love her.

 

May the Force be with her....to a complete and speedy recovery.

 

The force is strong with this one...

 

Indeed - hang in there Princess.

 

She'll be fine. You'll see.

 

Hoping all goes well for Carrie. I have been checking the news and to me it doesn't seem clear if she had a massive heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest or a heart attack that led to cardiac arrest. There is a difference, as if there is a massive heart attack, and thus a lot of heart damage, that affects the outcome. If the SCA is due to something else, and she had CPR, she could be ok, at least the way I see it.

This feels very personal to me as I was with my sister 3 months ago when she went into sudden cardiac arrest and fell over on me, when we were sitting outside at her home. Scariest thing imaginable. She is perfectly fine now by the way and did NOT have a heart attack. She had had heart surgery less than 2 weeks prior, and the long story short is that there was in retrospect an issue with one of her medications she was on after the surgery. Nevertheless she would have died had she been alone and that is something we all think about as she in fact had been alone most of the day, or in a room alone where no one would have noticed. When she fell over on me, she had no pulse and was not breathing.

The miracle to me is that besides myself the other 2 people present were her husband and a friend, both of whom are doctors. I have had CPR training but would have been terrified to be alone with someone. I was the one who called 911. Her husband and friend did CPR continuously until the medical personnel arrived about 7 to 8 minutes after. She woke up, but if they stopped CPR, she would lose her pulse again, so they just kept going. She was placed on a ventilator and was considered in critical condition until she was fully stabilized and awake which was about 12 hours later. Her issues were resolved and she is fully back to normal.

So I am hoping that we hear soon what actually happened to Carrie because it seems there has been no official reports from a medical person. And I am hoping that whatever it was, that it is something she can recover from. Don't want to lose her!

 

We work on patients weekly that are down for 15 or so minutes. It doesnt always turn out well, but there are surprises. With CPR its the compressions that are the vital initial component. Yes, breathing is important but theyve found that the circulation is the biggy. If she was having a cardiac arrest and then they started proper CPR; they didnt hesitate to get compressions going, established an airway and began mouth to mouth (16% oxygen in exhaled breath) or manual ventilation (ambu bag and oxygen 100% -do they even have such things on a plane?) then she has a better chance. If she "wasnt breathing for 10 minutes" then Im not sure why the hesitation by the attendance to start CPR (of course I wasnt there). However, it comes down to how fast and how well the CPR was done.

If she left the ER (which she did) then of course he is alive. Protocal will be determined by what type of heart attack it is. She may have went to cath lab and then to the icu. Tx just depends on how severe the heart attack was and what type. If she was down for awhile (that is, she really was not breathing and had no bloodflow to the brain for 10 minutes) then it could be bad. Theyd do a CT (Cat Scan) to determine the amt (if any) of brain damage she might have due to lack of blood flow.

There have been some amazing advances in protocal for heart attack victims. But it is still time and some luck as to how the outcome turns out.

 

Stable sounds promising.

 

Hell Han crashed a plane, walked out and dusted his pants off. She is tougher than Han.

 

"Witnesses at LAX tell us Carrie's eyes were closed and she appeared unconscious as EMTs rushed her through the terminal. She had an oxygen mask on her face."

An oxygen mask. That makes no sense. If she wasnt breathing, then an oxygen mask wont do much good. Weird. But these things usually are fuzzy. She is on a ventilator in icu apparently though. That makes more sense.

 

13:03 PST: YouTuber Anna Akana and her boyfriend Brad Gage tweeted that Fisher stopped breathing on their flight from London to Los Angeles. They were seated in front of Fisher in the plane.

13:13 PST: TMZ is reporting Fisher had a 'massive heart attack' 15 minutes prior to landing. An EMT on the flight administered CPR until paramedics removed her from the aircraft in an unconscious state.

14:30 PST: The LA Times is reporting that Fisher is in 'critical condition' at a hospital following a 'cardiac episode.'

14:45 PST: TMZ is reporting Fisher is currently at UCLA Medical Center on a ventilator. Paramedics worked on her for 15 minutes after landing before they were able to get a pulse.

15:48 PST: AP is reporting that Fisher is in stable condition.

16:29 PST: ABC is reporting that Fisher is stable in an intensive care unit.

 

Good to see that TMZ has their best and brightest medical professionals making a diagnosis.

 

The family is walking back "stable" -- she is in the ICU and they're "hoping for the best."

 

Yeah, sometimes its hard to tell those first few hours. We had a gentleman who came through the ER. He had symptoms at home and then called an ambulance. He then had a heart attack on the way to us. He was intubated and CPR was being administered when he arrived. He was never "down" (meaning w/o some sort of oxygen and circulation being done). He was nodding his head to my questions about an hour later. Most likely he will be fine. I dont really have much a follow up after a patient leaves ER.

In Carries case it really is a matter of what type heart attack and that window of time. Hopefully the EMT was johnny on the spot and was able to perform ace CPR on her. That part about the "oxygen mask" is somewhat concerning though. The paramedics I would think would have met them at the door and intubated. But again, I wasnt there. Hard to say how things went down.

 

One thing also to remember is that "stable" is not a good term. Its not really even recognized (though physicians and others unfortunately use it). A person can be critical but stable. They can be fair and stable. Or even good and stable. A dead person can be stable.

Most likely Carrie is very ill but they have her vitals (blood pressure, breathing, heart rate) under control. In other words her condition( the results of what happened to her) are still probably somewhat unknown and she is in critical condition. Yet that critical condition is at least not life threatening or worsening. Critically stable.

Again, "stable" is not really a good medically approved term.

 

I "liked" that only as a means of agreeing with you. I don't "like" it at all and I'm sure no one else does either...

Ed