MY CRAZIEST CATH LAB MOMENT HOW TECH ROB SOUZA HELPED SAVE HIS NEIGHBOR’S LIFE If you read our October newsletter, then you probably remember Rob Souza, the air force veteran turned cath lab technician who designed our line of Comfort Zone products. Rob has decades of experience in the cath lab, and over the years, he’s built a portfolio of funny, shocking, and mind- blowing stories from behind its doors. A while back, we convinced him to share a few of them on our podcast, “The Spark Podcast.” One of our favorite stories was the one Rob calls his craziest experience in the cath lab. It started when he was pulled into the ER to assist with an unknown procedure. When he walked in and caught sight of the patient, he knew right away that she looked familiar. “She had a hip procedure done, so she was short of breath. So you put two and two together, and you think she’s there for a pulmonary embolism,” Rob says. “She was having some chest pain ... I looked at her, and I looked at her records, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is one of my neighbors.’” When Rob checked for a pulse in his neighbor’s feet, he couldn’t find one, and he quickly realized she was in pulseless electrical activity (PEA). Then, her eyes rolled back. “I jumped on top of her. Fortunately, her husband was right there, and I started to do CPR on her right there on the gurney in the ER,” Rob says. “Next thing I know, we’re wheeling her to the cath lab, and I’m sitting on top of her, doing CPR all the way up.” In the lab, Rob and his team rushed to remove the clot from the patient’s pulmonary artery. The procedure went well, and they brought her back from the brink. Just a few weeks later, Rob was relieved to see her walking through their shared neighborhood. “Techs don’t get a lot of thanks and recognition, and neither do nurses, but we know why we’re here,” Rob says. “ … Just knowing that I was part of saving a life, extending somebody's life, or improving their quality of life — that fills my tank.”
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You can hear more stories from Rob and other cath lab specialists on “The Spark Podcast.” To check out past episodes, tzmedical.com/podcasts/ today!
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