New technology improving how UC doctors treat patients who suffer cardiac arrest

By Adam Burniston

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    CINCINNATI (WLWT) — Exactly one year ago, on Jan. 2, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field at Paycor Stadium during Monday Night Football against the Bengals. After taking a blow to the chest, UC Health’s medical team performed life-saving care and treatment. A year later, Hamlin is back on the football field and training with his team, and UC Health is continuing to improve how they treat cardiac arrest and similar emergencies.

In December 2023, UC Health unveiled a new state-of-the-art medical device called a Transesophageal Echo Probe. Medical staff at the hospital call this “the next step forward in ultrasound,” adding that when seconds matter, this device can help in a life-or-death situation. UC Health is the only hospital in the region so far using it in the emergency room, and it will help change how cardiac arrest and other heart-related emergencies are handled.

While different types of ultrasound technology have been used before during cardiac events, Meaghan Frederick, who works in Clinical Ultrasound and Emergency Medicine at the hospital, says it does come with challenges. Typically, during cardiac events, staff have to work directly over the chest and neck areas, which can block some of the best areas to get images of the heart. On top of that, Frederic says these devices have other drawbacks as well.

“Ultrasound doesn’t see well through bones or air, and your heart externally is surrounded by your chest and your lungs to protect it, and so while that’s great for everyday life, it actually kind of thwarts what I’m trying to do in a cardiac arrest,” Frederick said.

With the Transesophageal Echo Probe, medical workers like Frederick can put the device through the esophagus and get much clearer and better-resolution images of the heart from directly behind it or under it without hardly any other organs or bones being in the way. This helps give doctors a much better idea of what exactly is going on inside and around the heart, which in turn allows better treatment for patients suffering cardiac arrest like Hamlin did a year ago.

“Any time patients are coming in acutely ill like that, whether they’ve already lost the pules or are kind of in that very sick window, we are trying to gather as much information as fast as possible. Imagine walking into a crumbling building, trying to figure out where that’s starting, and just kind of patching as you go / But imagine somebody handed you a blueprint to that building as you walked in. It would be a lot easier, and you could tailor that care much more specifically to that patient,” Frederick said.

Frederick has already been able to use the new device on patients a few times. She says the device has helped them develop better life-saving treatments when seconds matter.

“We’ve been able to make those decisions, start new medications, change a procedure, troubleshoot some things a lot quicker than I’ve ever seen it go in codes without it,” Frederick said.

Fredrick and a few other colleagues spent around five to six months training to use this device, and soon, she says they’ll have another three fully trained staff join them. UC Health was able to purchase the devices they’re using in their emergency care thanks to the generous donation made by Hamlin last year.

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