Infant survives near drowning after 101 minutes of CPR
A 22-month-old US infant who underwent one hour and 41 minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) after nearly drowning has made an extraordinary recovery.
Gardell Martin was playing with his two brothers outdoors on March 11 at about 6pm when he fell into an icy creek near his Pennsylvania home, reported The Patriot-News.
He was swept downstream for about 400m in frigid waters.
A neighbour found the boy stuck among branches of a partially-submerged tree less than 30 minutes later, reported canoe.ca. But by then, Gardell had no pulse.
Emergency personnel performed CPR on the lifeless body while in the ambulance, at the community hospital, while on board a medical helicopter and finally, at a children's hospital near the town of Danville in California, reported The Patriot-News.
'Extraordinarily rare'
Gardell's temperature was 25 deg C when he finally arrived at the hospital, 12 deg C below the normal body temperature of 37 deg C.
It took a team of about 50 people to bring the boy back to life, WGN TV reported Dr Frank Maffei as saying.
The doctor said Gardell suffered a few broken ribs due to the CPR effort, reported The Patriot-News.
Gardell was discharged from hospital on Sunday (March 15).
On Thursday (March 19), doctors said the boy had made a full recovery.
CBS News quoted Dr Maffei as saying: "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."
He added: "The stars and moon aligned, and he had an angel on his shoulder."
Sources: The Patriot-News, canoe.ca, CBS News, WGN TV, AL.com
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