Drama in real life

Toddler dead for 101 minutes is now alive:

UNION COUNTY, Penn.- A Pennsylvania toddler who had no signs of life for more than an hour is now recovering and it’s all thanks for to high-quality CPR.

Gardell Martin was playing with his brothers near the family’s Union County home when he fell into a creek. The 22-month-old was swept into the icy currents and discovered by a neighbor about a half-hour later. He was lying face down in the 34-degree water.

“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 with the CPR and the breathing that was being done through the ET tube,” said Dr. Richard Lambert with Geisinger Pediatric Critical Care.

He was essentially dead.

“There were no signs of life for an hour and 41 minutes,” Dr. Frank Maffei, director of the pediatric ICU, said.

Gardell’s body was slowly warmed from a hypothermia-like state. His pulse and heart rate returned, and doctors said he will make a full recovery.

“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,” Dr. Maffei told WBRE in Pennsylvania.