Brought back from atrial fibrillation.?

I am in my senior year of nursing school in clinical. I was in ICU and a code was called on a woman who had gone into A fib and after a bunch of failed epi and chest compressions, I tried some chest compressions and brought her back to normal sinus, now she is in ICU with a bunny rabbit facial twitch and one pupil is 2 and sluggish, the other is NR. Anyone seen this before or know anything about it? I struggle with the fact that I brought her back and now she is on the vent and having neuro symptoms. This was my first code.

Sweetie, please dont beat yourself up. You did exactly what you were supposed to do, and no matter how much we may wish otherwise, we dont always get the results that we would like. Since I do not know what originally brought on the code, I am assuming she experienced global neuro ischemia due to the lack of oxygen for a period of time. It is really too soon to tell how much of the damage will be permanent, as I do not know her underlying patho and how long she had a nonperfusing rhythm. However, she may have improvement as the brain swelling goes down. This is not an easy profession, kudos to you for caring!

My mom had a similar experience. She lost her short term memory for a few months after being shocked back from an atrial fib.

The brain heals so amazingly. Your patient could be just fine. And even if she does have a little damage, that's so much better than dead. :) Don't feel guilty about it. You did exactly the right thing.

Dearest, Yes the other answers are very correct. In the Er were I work we often say....A good doctor can not keep the patient here and a bad doctor can not kill the patient if it was not his or her time. You did what you could and the Md wo was with you too....Rarely we have cases that were rescussitated and have brain damge after this.....it is sad and part of life. Life is not completely in your hands...really. Take a deep breath and spoil yourself . Do something you really enjoy

Your first code is always the hardest. I worked as a cardiac nurse for 14 years before I went into the hospice field of nursing. Some of your codes will be successful and some will not, it is simply the nature of the beast. I always tell young nurses to remember anything that you do to help a person who is dying is better than doing nothing at all. You will learn and be fine.