Channel 4’s 24 Hours in A&E will air more dramatic scenes on Tuesday, January 17 when an 18-year-old goes into cardiac arrest after playing football. Staff at Queen's Medical Centre had a race against time on their hands when the patient, Kye Wilson, was rushed in after collapsing on the pitch. Elsewhere in the series, doctors had an equally tough time saving a man with an "insanely high" heart rate - read more about that here.
According to football coach Wes, Kye’s “hands were curled up” and his “eyes were rolling back” when he first started exhibiting symptoms. He also said that Kye’s breathing was “non-existent”. These were all signs that he needed immediate care.
Upon arriving at the hospital, consultant Craig was immediately concerned. “It is the most time-critical situation that we face,” he said. With Kye’s heart rate dropping rapidly, the team tried to defibrillate him to no avail. Craig explained: “Patients who have a cardiac arrest out of hospital, less than 10% of them tend to survive.” All hope looked lost as medical staff continued their battle to save Kye, whose pulse showed no sign of returning.
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Outside the hospital, Kye’s mother, Lorenda, was on the phone in floods of tears, saying: “I can’t lose my baby boy.” Luckily her son’s pulse soon returned. It was then the job of the team to find out why Kye went into cardiac arrest in the first place. They got to work by putting the patient into an induced coma, then sending him for a CT scan.
Upon doing their checks, they discovered that the left slide of Kye's heart wasn’t pumping strongly. Consultant Craig told Lorenda that during his cardiac arrest, her son was starved of oxygen for 30 mins and there could be ramifications.
As the episode comes to a close, it's revealed that Kye survived but, unfortunately, is no longer able to play football. He bravely declared: “A surgeon came up to me and said, ‘If you play football then it will risk your life.’ I think from that moment, I realised that I don’t care and I value life more than anything in the world.” 24 Hours in A&E continues next week at 9pm on Tuesday, January 24. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
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