The German teenager survived 42 minutes underwater. Doctors say this is one in a million. 14-year-old Michael was trapped at a depth of about 2 meters in a canal in the city of Cujono near Milan.
On April 24, the boy jumped from the bridge with friends and did not surface. When divers pulled him out of the water, his heart did not beat, and the doctors pronounced him dead. Nevertheless, to the great surprise of the doctors themselves, they managed to "restart" the heart with the help of a defibrillator and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Michael was immediately taken to a hospital in Milan, where Dr. Alberto Zangrillo oxygenated his blood using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. A month later, the patient was already in contact with his parents.
- This is an extraordinary case, which some speak of as a miracle. I have to consider it from the point of view of medical science, but I cannot fully explain what happened. According to the rules, there is no point in using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation if the blood flow is stopped for six minutes. After 15 days, we performed magnetic resonance imaging, which showed that everything was in order with the patient's brain,”Dr. Zangrillo told the Times.
Michael had to amputate his leg, but most importantly, his brain and memory were not affected.
“The chance to survive was one in a million,” said the doctor, noting the exclusivity of the boy, who, after his resurrection, easily communicated with friends and family and even joked.
But the most important question that worries many: how did he manage to survive, being under water for so long?
Some cases are known when people survived after being under water for no more than one hour. Experts say young people are more likely to survive in such conditions. This is due to the body's ability to decrease the heart rate and send oxygen to the brain, which is more pronounced in young children. Cold water also improves brain performance.
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