Pennsylvania Boy Revived After Nearly 2 Hours Without Pulse
MIFFLINBURG, Pa., March 21 (UPI) — Doctors consider Gardell Martin a medical miracle.
When the Pennsylvania 22-month-old was found in an icy stream, he had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. There for at least 30 minutes, the prognosis was grim.
For nearly two hours after the boy was scooped from the water, emergency workers performed CPR. During the ambulance ride to the nearest hospital, the 15-mile helicopter ride to a children’s hospital and the emergency procedures at Geisinger’s Janet Weiss Children’s Hospital near Danville, Pa.
After one hour and 41 minutes of continuous CPR, Gardell is making a continual recovery that some thought could never happen. He doesn’t appear to have neurological damage and is acting like his old self, his parents said.
“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,” said Dr. Frank Maffei, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at the children’s hospital. “The stars aligned for this little guy in you know multiple ways.”
Physicians said the cold water, probably about 34 degrees, likely saved his life. Hypothermia can protect the organs because it lowers the body’s need for oxygen and limits the release of toxins that cause cell death.
The incident unfolded after Gardell disappeared while playing with two of his brothers near the stream. A neighbor discovered the boy. Emergency workers immediately began CPR. When Gardell arrived at the children’s hospital, his temperature was 77 degrees, well below the temperature of 98.6 degrees considered normal. He had no pulse and only faint cardiac activity was detected.
Using warming blankets and fluids, his body temperature was slowly raised to 90 degrees, where doctors held it steady. They put him on a ventilator and waited. Within hours, the boy opened his eyes. Five days later, he was released from the hospital.
