22-month-old Gardell Martin wasn’t breathing and had no pulse after falling into a freezing creek in Union City, Pennsylvania, according to the U.K’s The Independent.
After the little boy’s heart stopped for nearly half an hour, around 30 doctors and nurses at Geisinger Medical Center fought to bring the toddler back to life, performing 101 minutes of CPR in total, according to NBC News.
“I’m not going to deny that it feels like a miracle,” stated Dr. Frank Maffei, director of pediatric critical care at the Geisinger Medical Center.
Maffei added, “I feel like there was an angel watching over the kid.”
Martin was reportedly found caught in a tree branch before the ambulance crew arrived. The crew started performing CPR, which continued at the local community hospital he was initially taken to, the medical hospital and then in the emergency room of Geisinger.
In the ER, there was reportedly a line of five people at the boy’s side, each taking a 2-3 minute turn at CPR. Martin’s body temperature went from 77 degrees and rose to 90 due to the efforts of Maffei and his team.
The little boy’s brain reportedly showed no signs that it had been affected by the cardiac arrest he experienced after he regained consciousness. Martin’s mother, Rose, had described the revival of her son’s life as “an act of God.”
“There’s 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,” stated Rose Martin.
Maffei added, “It’s not 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.”
