J Emerg Med
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Massive pulmonary embolus (PE) with prolonged cardiac arrest in the setting of pregnancy has few treatment options. Selections are further restricted if there are contraindications to the standard therapies of embolectomy and thrombolysis. We report a case of extracorporeal life support (ECLS) used as salvage therapy for a critically ill pregnant patient. ⋯ A 21-year-old woman presented to a small rural hospital with chest pain, dyspnea, hypoxia, and syncope. In their emergency department, she suffered 2 episodes of cardiac arrest requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and fetal demise followed. A computed tomography scan revealed a saddle PE. She was transferred to our tertiary care hospital and arrived critically ill, on multiple vasopressors, and in cardiogenic shock. Because standard treatments, namely thrombolysis and embolectomy, were contraindicated in this case, ECLS was employed for 7 days. She was discharged home after 23 days, and at follow-up 5 months after her admission, she was found to have made a near-complete recovery. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: ECLS is a viable option as salvage therapy for pregnant patients with massive PE who have contraindications to thrombolysis and embolectomy.
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Coma is not a common symptom of stroke. ⋯ We present a patient with a stroke to the artery of Percheron, which infarcted the bilateral paramedian thalami and resulted in coma. WHY SHOULD AN EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN BE AWARE OF THIS?: Identifying strokes in comatose patients is important for therapeutic management. The bilateral thalami are involved in maintaining consciousness. The artery of Percheron is an anatomic variant in the posterior circulation whereby the bilateral paramedian thalami are perfused by it solely. This is an atypical stroke syndrome that emergency physicians need to be able to identify.