Successful resuscitation of out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest in an adolescent

Abstract

Cardiac arrest in the paediatric age group is uncommon. Successful resuscitation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in children with subsequent hospital discharge and normal neurological outcome is even rarer. A 14- year-old girl who presented with recurrent convulsive syncope was misdiagnosed to be suffering from epilepsy. Subsequently she was witnessed to have cardiac arrest and was successfully resuscitated. Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia was suspected to be the underlying cause of her symptoms. This case illustrated the important concept of the paediatric chain of survival in the prevention of death and improvement of survival in paediatric cardiac arrest.