A 22 month-old Pennsylvania boy whose lifeless body was pulled from the icy Buffalo Creek in Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania was revived after an hour and 41 minutes of CPR – with no brain damage!
The Daily Mail is reporting on the story of Gardell Martin who was outside playing with his older siblings on March 11 when he fell into a creek that ran through his family’s property. The icy water, which was swollen by melting snow, swept him nearly a quarter of a mile downstream before a neighbor spied his body caught in some low-hanging branches.
Gardell was nearly frozen, and had no pulse when an ambulance crew arrived and began CPR. Resuscitation efforts would continue for the next 101 minutes, from the ambulance to the community hospital, on board a medical helicopter and finally in the emergency room of the Geisinger Medical Center.
A team of 30 doctors and nurses struggled to raise Gardell’s body temperature, which was 20 degrees below normal when he arrived.
Dr. Frank Maffei, director of pediatric intensive care at the hospital ordered his team to slowly warm the boy’s body while they continued CPR. When it reached 82 degrees, they detected a pulse. Against incredible odds, Gardell’s heart had restarted.
Within hours, the toddler had regained consciousness and exhibited normal brain function, which stunned the doctors even more.
“It’s not only extraordinarily rare that we got the kid back, but what’s even more extraordinary is the rate at which he recovered and the completeness of his recovery,” Dr. Maffei said.
His mother, Rose Martin, says his recovery was “an act of God.”
“There is no doubt in my mind it’s a miracle,” she said. “God had the right people in the right place at the right time and they all did a wonderful job.”
Dr. Richard Lambert, the attending physician in the pediatric intensive care unit said Gardell is an a “rare, rare, extreme category for recovery” and said “it provides us with a smile on our face, knowing you were part of something this wonderful and amazing.”
Gardell came home from the hospital on Sunday and appears to be perfectly fine.
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