Just Five Minutes with Cathy Humikowski, MD
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, Nocturneus Listeners, it's Emily. And in case you missed last week's episode, we are back. We're picking up where we left off with season three of our podcast last spring. Just so you know, these stories and conversations were recorded back in twenty nineteen, before the events of twenty twenty upended our lives. So listen with that context in mind. Here's the show.
At the Nocturinous, we are careful to ensure that all stories comply with healthcare privacy laws. Details may have been changed to ensure patient confidentiality. All views expressed are those of the person speaking and not their employer.
ICU doctor Kathy Humikowski got a second chance at life after her cardiac arrest. It was an experience that changed her perspective on medicine, the brain, and truth. This is The Nocturnus, stories from the world of medicine. I'm Emily Silverman. In this episode, Kathy tells the story of how she died and came back to life. Afterward, Kathy and I talk more about her brief death experience and how it opened her up to new ways of thinking.
I'm a very grounded, um empirical person, and this is something for which I have no real explanation. Here's Kathy.
I'm in a coma. And the first thing I notice as I begin to wake up is a pain in my chest. The last thing I remember about my chest is it's where my healthy baby lay after a totally normal delivery. Why should it hurt me now? Why should I be Tethered to a ventilator in a coma at all. I reach for the source of discomfort and I feel the edge of a defibrillator pad. Now I'm a pediatric intensive care physician, so even in a coma I knew what that meant. My chest hurt because I had received C PR. I had chest compressions there when my heart stopped. Why would
that have
happened? My husband didn't yet know the answer either. All he was told at that point is that I had survived and that I might still have brain damage. So as he waited for me to wake up fully along my bedside with some of our closest friends who are also physicians, they speculated out loud, you know, what could cause a cardiac arrest in an otherwise healthy young person. And so when I woke up fully, among the first things I said, and this is totally verifiable and almost verbatim, I said something like, Well, of course I had a PEA arrest. If you were hemorrhaging red cells being resuscitated with crystalloid, what do you think would happen to your myocardial oxygen supply? So he knew I was okay. Even before we learned the name of what had happened, we were told later I had something called an amniotic fluid embolism, which is a rare complication of childbirth that's often fatal.
Somebody here knows what that is. So in the weeks that followed we didn't talk much more about my resuscitation. We were just grateful to be alive in the world together with our healthy baby. Even simple things like taking a shower, I would weep with joy that I could wash myself. You know, there wasn't room inside of our home to talk about the physiology. But I'm an intensivist, so that's like my jam, you know.
What happened to Dr. Humikowski on the day she gave birth?
So when I was getting ready to go back to work for the first time after maternity leave, that's what I was actually really excited to talk about, you know, just really explore my resuscitation with my colleagues and kind of nerd out about it in like a super geeky way. And so I got dressed up for work. I didn't have a clinical shift for a couple of weeks. I was just going in for a meeting, but still I was excited. And I squeezed into this abdominal binder that was meant to protect the scar running down my belly, but also served like a girdle a little bit so I could get into some of my better pre pregnancy work clothes. And for some reason I wore heels, 'cause you know why not? My core had been totally destabilized and I had to carry my work bag and my breast pump and my baby's bag and like my actual baby.
But I managed not to face plant on the way to daycare and I got to work on time even a little bit early. And I ran into my department chairman between the parking lot and the hospital and he was so happy to see me.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:23
2
What happened to Dr. Humikowski on the day she gave birth?
3:23–7:00
3
What was the experience of the near‑death peace and what did she feel in the OR?
7:00–14:05
4
How did the amniotic fluid embolism cause her cardiac arrest?
14:05–15:40
5
How did she and her family process the aftermath of the arrest?
15:40–21:31
6
What insights did she gain about trauma, memory, and family after surviving?
21:31–34:26