The lady didn’t trust it
Berend never had anything. He was a strong, sturdy man in his forties with a cheerful appearance. When I saw him, it was because he came with his wife. He was sweet and caring for her. One evening I was on duty, when his wife called. I felt the concern in her words. Berend had pain in his left arm. She was afraid for his heart. Because there was never anything medical with Berend and because his wife was so worried, I decided to go to Lindenlaan 5 straight away. Berend sat cheerfully as always on the couch. I sat down next to him and asked the questions that go with heart complaints. It was not a clear story. And nothing special had happened either. The lady put a cup of coffee in front of me. I took his blood pressure and listened to Berend’s heart. Despite the somewhat vague complaints, I decided to follow the protocol for a heart attack. I injected some nitroglycerine under his tongue, gave him aspirin and kept an eye on the time. In the meantime, I stirred my coffee and Berend and his wife continued to chat happily. When the nasty feeling in his arm did not subside after a few puffs under the tongue, I explained that – even though it seemed overdone – I was going to call an ambulance immediately according to protocol. We are not taking any risks. I grabbed Berend’s wrist to check his heartbeat, when suddenly his head snapped to the side. Berend was on his way to another world! I pulled him to the ground and started resuscitation.
In the meantime, I ordered his wife to call 112. Then she collapsed on a chair, completely stunned. In a heroic mood, I decided to inject adrenaline into the heart. Was that protocol at the time? I don’t remember. The lady woke up from her somewhat shocked state and stammered: “The neighbor is an ICU nurse”. “Get her quickly”, I shouted. Together with the neighbor, I kept Berend talking until the ambulance arrived. With a few blows from the defibrillator, Berend’s heart started beating again. The nurses took him away. That night I slept badly. I kept seeing the horrible image of Berend’s wide-open, bloodshot eyes. That image kept haunting my brain. Would Berend survive? The next day I went to the hospital to find out what was going on. The image of the bloodshot eyes disappeared in one go when I saw Berend in a hospital bed eating a green bean. His twinkling eyes caught sight of me and he greeted me cheerfully. It was fine. He had had a small infarction, albeit with cardiac arrest, but there was actually no damage to the heart muscle. Berend was able to continue living. Years later, when I had already changed practices, I ran into the couple at the emergency room. I got a big kiss from both of them. I did something right in my career.