Toddler survives near-drowning after 101 minutes of CPR
In a survival story his doctors call extraordinary, a 22-month-old Pennsylvania boy whose lifeless body was pulled from an icy creek was revived after an hour and 41 minutes of CPR and has suffered virtually no lingering effects.
Gardell Martin came home from the hospital on Sunday, and his doctors said Thursday he has made a full recovery.
"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," said Dr. Frank Maffei, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Geisinger's Janet Weis Children's Hospital in Danville. "The stars and moon aligned, and he had an angel on his shoulder."
Gardell and two of his brothers had gone outside to play on March 11 when he fell into the stream that runs through their 5-acre property near Mifflinburg and was swept away by the fast-moving current.
His 7-year-old brother, Greg, ran into the house and screamed that he couldn't find Gardell.
Their mother, Rose Martin, did a quick search of the property before realizing her young son had likely fallen into the creek, which was swollen because of melting snow. She called 911 while her two teenage daughters began walking downstream in a frantic search for the toddler.
A neighbor found Gardell nearly a quarter-mile away, caught up in a tree branch and water gushing around him.
An ambulance crew arrived moments later, found no pulse and began CPR. Resuscitation would continue, unbroken, for 101 minutes in the ambulance, at a community hospital, aboard a medical helicopter and, finally, in the emergency room of Janet Weis, the pediatric wing of Geisinger Medical Center, where a team of some 30 doctors and nurses sprang into action.
Gardell's body temperature was 77 degrees when he arrived, more than 20 degrees below normal. In this case, the boy's profound hypothermia worked to his advantage, dramatically slowing his metabolism and giving his organs "some degree of protection from cardiac arrest," Maffei said.
Knowing that, Maffei ordered CPR to continue while the team slowly warmed his body. At around 82 degrees, they detected a pulse.
Against all odds, his heart had restarted.
Hours later, Gardell regained consciousness and his brain function was normal, stunning doctors.
"It was an act of God," said his grateful mother, Rose Martin. "There is no doubt in my mind it's a miracle. 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 belonged in a "rare, rare, extreme category for recovery."
A week later, the medical team is still on a high.
It "provides us with a smile on our face, knowing you were part of something this wonderful and amazing," Lambert said.
Back at home, Gardell is walking though he still needs to regain a bit of balance and chattering away.
But not about his ordeal.
"It's hard to tell how much he remembers or knows about what happened," his mother said. "He can't really tell us in that way."
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The reason I posted this, is because I recently read a book called Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love, by Anna Whiston-Donaldson. The book recounts a true story remarkably similar to this story, with one significant difference. Annas son was swept away in a swollen creek, but her son did not survive. Writing about the accident, and her son (who was a teenager), and how dreadful a loss it was for the family, was a way for her to get some closure.
The family was also deeply religious. In the book, she spoke of the many times she railed against god for taking her son, but her faith remained, and remains, steadfast. As an atheist, I just dont get it, nor have I ever gotten it. What is the point? You believe in an entity that you think has the power to affect whether an incident will result in life or death, and yet good, god-fearing people more often than not get the crappy end of the stick. Believers either end up calling success an act of God, or they rail against that god for a tragic loss while remaining faithful and yet that god in every respect imaginable shows no signs of existence. Its just an unnecessary blanket that covers the real world around you.
Anna is convinced that her sons soul was yanked from his body by angels before he could feel the pain of his physical death, and that he is in heaven having an awesome eternal afterlife. Is that what this is about? Denial of reality? It was an accident sometimes accidents are recoverable, sometimes they are not. That is life, and death is an inevitable part of life. Dont get me wrong, Im incredibly happy that the kid in this article survived the way he did, I just will never understand the statement I quoted above. Cant we just placing the credit where it belongs with the doctors and professionals that actually affect the outcomes?
What an amazing story.
I read in other articles where the lowered body temp has workedon behalf of the victim.
Hal,
Like you I'm thrilled this child survived and theparents didn't have to begin a lifelong grieving process.
Like Anna, my faith has helped me live an earthly life apart from my daughter. What you view as her and my denial of reality, helps us get up every morning to face another day. To find joy in the day and live life to our fullest potential.
Here is but one piece of my reality....without my faith, the person responsible for our daughters death would have had one in the back of his head years ago. Accidentsure, yethis negligence amounted to her death.
Beyond the faith aspects, I'm honestly surprised CPR would be done for the length of time it was. It's usually "called" long before 101 minutes. Which gets one to wondering...what is the proper amount of time to attempt resuscitation? Perhaps they continued allowing the body towarm to see if it would respond.
It was the darkest time of my life and while I appreciate your sympathy, you don't get to determine where my morality and faith intersected or took separate paths in my journey.I came to a point where morally was willing tonot only murder but gladly acceptlifetime of prison or execution. My faith, my belief system was the only thing in place that prevented taking my thoughts, wants andgrief to fruition.
I'm not proud of any of this Hal, you can believe it or not. I've forgiven him the deed and myself for the ugliest part of my being human. Did I forgive him because of my morality? No, because of my belief system and to allow me to live life to my fullest potential.
As much as I don't understand why people believe in gods, you clearly don't understand those who don't.
I honestly try to, I'm married to an agnostic. With his logical sensibilities thelively debates we've had over the last 34 yearswill undoubtedly continue. Throughout life my faith has waxed, waned, questioned, thrown up hands in defeat and yet draws me back.
Thank you for not calling the wagon for me to be hauled to a padded room
I have the utmost respect for you as an individual, being an atheist is just one attribute of who you are much like my belief in God is just one of mine...we are both so much more and I appreciate the honest dialogue.
When I was an EMT once we started CPR we never stopped until the ER docs took over at the hospital and then they would have people continue it on and on, because you never know.