In just one minute the life of the young Chilean Manuela Bugueno forever changed. The 30-year-old girl had come to run the Buenos Aires half marathon last Sunday. Once she crossed the finish line, she looked at the time on her watch and collapsed. At that moment, Dr. Roberto Campos, a cardiologist who was part of the prevention team hired for the race, came into action. In dialogue with Infobae, the doctor told how those 6 eternal minutes were in which Manuela came back to life following suffering a sudden death. “He was lucky enough to faint right in front of the Red Cross post that we set up at the arrival of the event -explains Campos-. In less than two minutes we got to work on pulmonary cardiovascular recovery (CPR) and on the second attempt we managed to save her.”
Campos works in the Kynet Integrative Medicine, company in charge of taking care of the health of the runners. Before starting the race, all the staff had chosen him as the person in charge of doing the CPR in the event of an incident. “Almost without thinking, I was working on Manuela’s body. We used the defibrillator and luckily the athlete responded quickly. Those 6 minutes flew by for me. Once back to life, Bugueño was taken in a SAME ambulance to Fernández Hospital. just there, following 22 minutes he was able to express what he felt.
“The last thing you remember is looking at the clock to see your time and then he woke up in the Fernández hospital bed, ”explains Campos. After her stabilization, Bugueño was admitted to the German Hospital. “Now it remains to carry out studies to find the causes of what happened to Manuela. If she has any heart disease or any genetic issue. In principle, she should wait to return to high-intensity sports activity such as a half marathon.”
“Chilean runner Manuela Bugueño, 30 years old He vanished when crossing the finish line following marking a time of 1h 28m, ”said the organization of the competition in a statement. She “she She was immediately treated by the organization’s medical team and resuscitation tasks were performed. In coordination with the Urban Monitoring Center of the Buenos Aires Government, the transfer of an ambulance to the Fernández Hospital was expedited, where her care was completed and she remained in direct contact with her family, ”added the organizers in the text.
According to data provided by Campos to Infobae, in Argentina there are regarding 35 thousand sudden deaths per year. “That gives almost 100 per day -highlights the doctor-. That is why it is very important that we all know how to do CPR. In this way, many lives would be saved. That is why it must be taught in schools and clubs.
Manuela’s father’s emotion
The young Chilean was grateful to all the members of the Buenos Aires health system who saved her life. In addition, her father from Chile sent a video to the doctors to thank her for her work. Mario Bugueño highlighted in the video that “as a family they will not have enough time to thank everything they did with Manuela so that she can be with us once more. We thank you for having Manuela once more as a daughter, sister, cousin and granddaughter of our entire family.”
How was the operation of the race
The Ñandu Association, organizer of the race, highlighted that in 2018 it became the first competition in the country to obtain the “cardioprotected” status. The organizers added that “for the 21k in Buenos Aires, the device once once more had a cardio-assistance plan in compliance with Law 27,159 (dec 402/2022) designed by Emerteam with the support of Emergencies Salud and Kynet.”
The health operation deployed in the Buenos Aires half marathon consisted of: 27 Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) and 14 cardio-defibrillators in Mobile Intensive Care Units, totaling 41 defibrillators throughout the circuit. In addition to the Central Medical Post (with clinicians, cardiologists, nurses and technicians), there were 11 First Aid posts, 14 UTIM Emergency Ambulances, 4 motorcycles with paramedical personnel, 12 motorcycles with AEDs, 15 physiotherapists and 105 lifeguards, in addition to an emergency coordination center.
“The number of attentions was below what we expected, taking into account the massiveness of the race. In general, it was regarding some muscular problems”, commented Pizzini, who is a university technician in civil protection and emergencies and director of Emertem.
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