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Stories
On January 29, 2006, my then 13 year old daughter was at a slumber party and went into cardiac arrest. Fortunately, she was at the slumber party and not alone in her room. The girls at the party alerted the Mom, who fortunately knew CPR. When the medics arrived, they had to use a defibrillator three times to start my daughter’s heart. In all, her heart was not beating on its own for 10 minutes. She was rushed to Children's Hospital in Seattle who participated in the cooling protocol. It saved my daughters life. She was in an induced coma for a time and on the cooling blanket. When she eventually awoke, she had a few short term memory problems. In a few days the memory problems were gone. She was scheduled to remain in in-patient rehab. But as the days wore on, it became unnecessary for her to remain in rehab. Eleven days after having her heart stopped for 10 minutes, she left the hospital and returned to school. She has a previously undetected genetic disorder, Long QT and now has a ICD/Pacemaker. My daughter is in the five percent survivor category, thanks to your research. She is better than 100% recovered, she is now more confident and easy going. Our whole family is closer and more appreciative of life because of this experience. There were a lot of things that went right for my daughter that fateful day, but after reading the article, I see what a blessing it was to be at one of the few hospitals that use the cooling protocol.
Bellevue, WA
I just read the Newsweek article about your research. I thought I would just give you a bit of information on my cardiac arrest not knowing if you are looking for more experiences or not. My arrest happened Dec. 8, 2003 when I was 49 years old and in very good health. I was without oxygen 7 1/2 to 8 minutes before the local fire department, which I am a member, revived me with the defibrillator. I was taken to Immanuel St. Joseph's Hospital in Mankato, MN. The cardiologist on call started the hypothermia protocol immediately and I am sure saved me from extensive brain damage. I did suffer short-term memory loss but it has been regained in the past 3 ½ years. You may not need any of this but I thought I would at least email you just in case you wanted more case data.
Respectfully,
A Survivor
I would really like to make contact with Dr. Becker or any of his associates regarding the article in Newsweek regarding cardiac arrest/hypothermia treatment. Last November, my husband had a heart attack(at age 35) and went into cardiac arrest 3 times. It was a STEMI and we found out later that he had a 90% occlusion in his major left artery. The ambulance came and brought him to Mt Desert Island Hospital (our critical care access hospital, in a very small town) and administered TPK and finally stabilized him enough to lifeflight him to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. When we arrived there, they told us that he wasn't responding, was in a coma, and they were afraid that he had suffered brain damage and that if he did make it, what extent the damage would be (i.e., being able to walk, talk, etc.). Then they told me about the hypothermia protocol and I don't remember much of the conversation after that but I gave the ok and the process began. My husband had never been sick in the 15 years that I have known him so this was all quite a shock to myself and our family. He was in the induced hypothermic coma for 29 hours. We weren't allowed to touch him for fear that we would "warm him too much". It was absolutely terrifying!! Anyway, he had the heart attack at 3:30 on Monday afternoon and he woke up at 4:30 am on Wednesday morning. I couldn't believe it. When he reached for me, I almost fainted. He knew who I was and he reached out to touch me. He was obviously scared and confused, as he had a tube down his throat, many wires attached to him and he didn't know where he was. So far, all we knew was that he could follow commands as far as moving certain body parts, etc, so we had a pretty good idea right away that he was functioning normally so far. He looked so beautiful with his eyes open that I wouldn't have cared if he would never walk or talk again. After several hours and several visits from doctors and nurses, we realized that he was going to be ok, so far. Three days later they put a stent in his heart and two days after that he came home to me as good as new. For many weeks after that he had many questions about what had happened to him and about the time he had lost. Now, six months later, he is perfect and in better health than he has ever been. I have been extremely excited about sharing our story, and also grateful that Bangor, Maine had this technology to offer us. If there is any way that we can contribute to this medical miracle, we would be very happy to oblige. My husband would love to share his story (as he jokingly call it "his frozen Pop Story"). I would also be happy to send you all of his medical records so that it can be documented for your research. As I said before, we are very excited to share our experience and would love to be involved in this research in any way!
Bar Harbor, ME
This procedure IS a lifesaver. My 82 year old father had a sudden cardiac arrest this past Christmas Eve. He was unresponsive for >6 minutes (not sure how long he was down prior to paramedics arriving)and then revived on the way to the hospital. ER doctors (Cleveland Clinic in Weston, FL) made the decision to start him on the cooling procedure. He was in the ICU for two weeks, heavily sedated due to issues with intubation, then in telemetry for one week. He was then sent to a rehab facility and stayed there for three weeks before coming home. He has now been home for a couple weeks and has returned to almost complete normal functioning. He is working on regaining strength and weight. Visiting nurse and PT come to the home twice a week but will discontinue soon due to his great recovery.
We are certain that without this procedure he would not be here. Our family cannot thank you enough for the work you have done with this procedure. As a result, we will hopefully have several more years with my father.
Kissimmee, FL
I suffered sudden cardiac arrest on 13 May 2008. I was resuscitated but remained in an unconscious state for two days. During this time, at Washington Hospital Center, I was cooled, or frozen. When I was warmed and woke up, I was fine, but it took several days before my memory kicked in, and my mind began making imprints for memory. I beleive that this freezing was instrumental in saving my life and preventing possible brain or tissue damage.
Crofton, MD