The Struggle to Save Anna Nicole
Posted Feb. 8, 2007 @ 7pm/ET
It was a chaotic scene in Anna Nicole's Smith hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, when the Hollywood (Fla.) Fire Rescue Squad arrived shortly before 2 p.m.
Capt. Dan Fitzgerald, of the squad's responding engine company, told Miami's NBC-6 that Seminole Rescue was on the scene attempting CPR on an "unconscious and unresponsive" Smith when they arrived. Hotel security guards, Anna Nicole's bodyguard, and Howard K. Stern were also on the scene.
"Hollywood Rescue stepped in and took over at the scene," said Capt. Fitzgerald. "We intubated the patient — that means to put a tube down her throat. Started an I.V. We pushed all medications. We attempted pacing her, which would be an external pacemaker for the heart...we couldn't get her heart beating."
When asked what medications were used in an attempt to revive Anna Nicole, Capt. Fitzgerald reported: "Without all the info from friends, there are certain medications we push automatically, like Narcan for any chance of overdose; bicarb, because we didn't know how long she was down; Epinephrine, which is like adrenaline, to get the heart started on its own; atropine [another antidote for drug overdose]...there's a whole list of medications in order that we do as far as the protocols go."
Asked if their efforts resulted in any response at all from Smith, Capt. Fitzgerald stated: "No, not that I saw."
Click here to view our Anna Nicole Smith photo gallery.
