Pennsylvania Toddler Does a Comeback From Beyond After 101 Minutes of CPR
A toddler was brought back to life after being clinically dead for nearly two hours.
Gardell Martin, a 22-month old in Pennsylvania fell into icy waters of creek running near his house on March 11. The boy was found downstream 30 minutes later, without a pulse and was not breathing. When emergency personnel arrived, they began CPR. The boy was being resuscitation while aboard an ambulance, a helicopter ambulance and in the emergency wing of the Geisinger's Janet Weiss Children's Hospital.
After 101 minutes, Martin woke up. Medical personnel who rescued him, help termed the event a miracle.
"In my 23 years I have not seen an hour and 41 minutes come back to this degree of neurological recovery. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because people are trained. The stars aligned for this little guy in you know multiple ways," said Dr Frank Maffei, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the hospital.
While Martin's waking up after being without a pulse in itself is a rare event, doctors are surprised that he has suffered no neurological damage after his body stopped functioning. His parents say they have not noticed any changes in the boy's behavior, indicating the incident did not affect him. Doctors attribute his organs being intact after the ordeal, to the cold waters.
It is known that hypothermia can prevent organ failure by preventing the body's cells from releasing toxins.
