Carlos Antonio Aranda, head of the acute care department at Badajoz University Hospital, ran across the lawn to tend to the patient who had a heart attack in the Cádiz-Barcelona
An Extremadura cardiologist spending the weekend in Cádiz is the doctor who turned the cameras on him following Saturday’s Cádiz-Barcelona football game after a fan following the South Fund game suffered a heart attack that forced the meeting to be halted.
The fortuitous protagonist of this event is Carlos Antonio Aranda López, Head of the Department of Acute Cardiological Care at the University Hospital of Badajoz. Born 36 years ago in Mérida, since 2015 he has been leading the service that tries to help the most seriously ill patients.
Carlos Antonio passed the Extremadura Day bridge in Conil de la Frontera (Cádiz), where his brother lives, a circumstance that he took advantage of to go to the capital and see the team he is a fan of, Fútbol Club Barcelona.
It was that circumstance that allowed him to stand in the stands of the stadium when a fan suffered a sudden heart attack. “At first it wasn’t very clear what was going on because it could pass out from fainting, but when I saw that they were resuscitating him, I understood that this man’s problem was a heart problem.”
Carlos Antonio was in the box with Hugo Vaca at the time, a Cádiz player from the 1980s who happens to be the father of this squad’s field representative. “I told him he could lend a hand. Hugo Vaca spoke to his son on the phone and they quickly helped me to where he was being treated.”
That is why the head of the acute care department of the University Hospital Badajoz appeared on the television broadcast of the competition for a few seconds. He is seen running across the field in the direction of the South Fund.
«When I got there, the Red Cross team was taking care of the patient, including the doctor from Cádiz and an elderly doctor. They did a perfect job and I tried to help with my knowledge,” he explains.
Carlos Antonio recognizes that his day job consists of helping patients with acute heart problems who have had a heart attack or arrhythmia, so he knows perfectly the protocols to follow. “I told them to administer amiodarone, a drug that is used in situations like this. I also participated in the CPR maneuvers and about 20 minutes later we managed to get my heart rate back ».
A medical team also took part in this medical care that rushed to the stadium of Cádiz with a more powerful defibrillator than the one used in the first moments. “The first defibrillator used is the one in the locker room tunnel, it’s the one goalkeeper Aranda throws to the stands.”
“The fact that CPR maneuvers were started quickly had an influence. Really all the people who took part did a phenomenal job,” said Dr Aranda before judging the referee’s excellent conduct.
“I wasn’t really influenced by the fact that there were thousands of people watching what was happening and a lot of people on television. At that moment you don’t realize it, really when you think about it is when it’s all over.
From what they told him, the fan he visited on Saturday was hospitalized where they performed a catheterization to open his artery. Now he remains in the Intensive Care Unit, but Carlos Antonio is confident that he can move forward. “Most patients who arrive at the hospital alive manage to overcome it. Hopefully they do.”
At the moment, this cardiologist, born in Mérida and stationed in Badajoz for twelve years, is still in Cádiz, but this Monday he will return to his position as Head of the Department of Acute Cardiological Care of the University Hospital of Badajoz, a responsibility he has had for seven years. “There is a friend who has always told me that the only fault I have is that I am from Barcelona, but yesterday he called me to tell me that this time it has served to save a life.”
Source: La Verdad
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