My First Code

A code is the term we use when we get a patient in Cardiac Arrest and we have to try to reanimate them by doing CPR, and Difibrillation. I got my first code Monday August 25th. But it wasn't what I expected.
Since the beginning of my stage I said I wanted a code so I can practice, I was expecting a old lady, or an old man who's time had simply come, but what I got was an 18 year old boy. He was epileptic and I think his family found him on the floor of the bathroom and he got out of the shower when they got home from work. We showed up, hurried down the stairs, I checked a pulse felt nothing so I began CPR. This patient was blue, and looked like he's had been there for a while, his parents said it's been more then half an hour since they've seen him alive. We did CPR, attached the defib pads, and did an analyze ''Choc- non conseillé'' shock not advised. I look at the monitor asystolie (flat line, no cardiac activity) so I continue CPR, my partner prepares the combitube and intubates him (Placing a tube down his throat to breathe for him and prevent him from vomiting into his lungs) the tube is in place, we continue CPR, and 3 more cycles ( one cycle= 30 compressions + 2 breaths) we do another analyze ''choc non conseillé) asystolie on the monitor, we did that one more time and never shocked him, because we didn't have a shockable rhythm. We stopped our maneuvers our efforts did not work. This poor family lost they're son and brother.
We did a good job, nobody was going to save this man, we gave him the best chance at survival and that's what our job is. My partner had to explain to the parents that he was gone. Seeing the family collapse as their world came crashing down is the worst part of the job so far. Nothing about this was right 18 year old kids aren't supposed to die like that.
The story I heard was this man got out of the shower had a seizure and fell face first in the garbage can, the bag suffocated him. ¸
After a call like that you go over it in your head, see if there was anything else you can do, make sure that no one else could've done a better job, and on this call nobody could've done better in Quebec. In the rest of the world there could have been Advanced Care Paramedics who could've administered cardiac drugs via I.V that might've worked. No guarantee because most people don't come back from asystolie, especially more than 30 minutes, but an Advanced care Paramedic, could've given him a better chance. Somethings gotta change in this province.