Toddler Comes Back to Life 100 Minutes After Being Declared Dead in Pennsylvania Miracle
A 22-month-old boy from Pennsylvania who had been declared dead for more than an hour and a half after slipping into a fast-moving icy stream reportedly came back to life on March 11.
At around 6 p.m. that day, Gardell Martin and two of his brothers were playing in the backyard when he somehow fell into the stream, KVUE.com reported on Sunday.
A neighbor who helped Gardell's family look for him found the toddler about half an hour later almost a quarter mile downstream, carried that far by the strong current. The boy was stuck on a branch, face down in the icy 34-degree water, and lifeless. First responders were already on their way when Gardell was pulled from the water.
"I knew there was help on the way and I just gathered the rest of the children around me and prayed," Mrs. Martin was quoted by KVUE.com as saying.
While the family prayed, emergency medical technicians were already performing CPR on the little boy. Gardell was eventually flown to Geisinger's Janet Weis Children's Hospital in Danville, where the pediatric intensive care staff was already waiting for his arrival.
"As soon as he arrived and we were able to get him from the stretcher onto the table everybody just began to work," said Dr. Richard Lambert of the pediatric critical care. "He did not have a pulse and he wasn't breathing on his own and he had no neurologic function. All of those things were being done for him... the CPR and the breathing that was being done through the E-T tube."
"He was dead," Dr. Lambert pronounced.
"There was no sign of life for an hour and 41 minutes," said Dr. Frank Maffei, the director of the pediatric intensive care.
Dr. Maffei said Gardell's body temperature dropped to about 75 degrees, which is almost 25 degrees lower than normal. This hypothermic-like state allowed the boy to survive. "His organs were in a state of protection. They had very little metabolic needs."
The toddler's pulse and heart rate eventually returned as his body slowly warmed.
"The duration of CPR and the rapidity of the recovery and the completeness of the recovery – I think these are the things that stand out as quite striking," said Dr. Maffei.
Dr. Maffei said he believed no child in northeastern Pennsylvania had survived without a pulse as long as Gardell did.
The toddler's mother, Rose, was thankful for her son's medical miracle, saying: "I just can't thank them enough. We feel very unworthy and very grateful."
Doctors said they will continue to monitor Gardell but that all indications pointed to his full recovery.
