Full recovery after prolonged cardiac arrest and resuscitation with mechanical chest compression device during helicopter transportation and percutaneous coronary intervention.

Background: Despite early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by bystanders and early advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) maneuvers, some patients present to the emergency department with persistent cardiac arrest caused by a coronary artery occlusion. Although emergency percutaneous intervention (PCI) has been shown to be effective in improving survival, transporting patients in cardiac arrest to the hospital is not considered to be effective, due to the poor quality of CPR in the ambulance. In the case reported here, a mechanical chest compression device was used while transporting the patient by helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS).