Miracle! How Schoolboy Who Was Medically Dead For 25 Minutes Survived

Cade Ewington, an eleven-year-old UK schoolboy whose heart stopped beating for 25 minutes after his body was pulled from a swimming pool, has made an extraordinary recovery, reports Daily Mail.

The young boy was said to have suffered from a cardiac arrest during his first school swimming lesson at Active Luton’s Lewsey Pool, England, but his swimming teachers who saw him fall unconscious in the water quickly got him out of the pool.

Six paramedics from the East of England Ambulance Service, according to Daily Mail, were on the scene within five minutes to perform life-saving CPR, but they struggled to restart the heart of the teenage boy, who had not taken a breath for 25 minutes, which meant that he was medically dead.

Eventually, they were able to restart his heart and he was rushed to Luton and Dunstable Hospital before he was taken to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) where doctors sedated him for two days to protect his swollen brain from trauma. He remained in the hospital for two weeks, where he was diagnosed and treated for a rare heart rhythm condition which triggered the cardiac arrest, sources say.

According to consultant paediatric cardiologist at GOSH, Juan Kaski, the teenage boy was “extremely lucky” that he did not end up with any brain damage.

He said, “Cade’s heart went into a chaotic rhythm called ventricular fibrillation, which effectively means that the heart is unable to pump any blood, and this is equivalent to the heart having stopped. The care that Cade received, particularly in the immediate moments while he was being resuscitated, was exceptional care and as a result of that he has done extremely well.”

“He is extremely lucky that he doesn’t have any significant brain damage,” he continued. “If the resuscitation hadn’t been so good, it could have been a different story. We have treated a number of children in a similar situation who have ended up with brain damage. While his own heart wasn’t beating by itself, he had such a good outcome because of all the life support he received.”

The boy’s father, 46-year-old Mark Ewington, admitted that he feared the worst when he walked into the hospital to find doctors trying to resuscitate his son.

The father of four said, “He is my absolute everything and I can hand on heart say that I thought it was the end. There were a dozen medical staff and police over him, they looked at us and you could tell no one wanted to give us the news. He was out cold on the bed and we didn’t know if he was alive or dead – you never want to see your son like that.”

He added, “This just shows the importance of people knowing CPR when they work in leisure centres, as without that lifeguard, Cade wouldn’t be here. We are indebted to the life guards because if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have a son. The fact of the matter is, a week after it happened he was up and moving. Now four weeks later he’s going to rock concerts and all sorts. He was a ticking time bomb but he’s basically safer now than he has ever been before and it hasn’t fazed him.

“Cade was very dazed and confused when he was taken out of the sedation, as he had lost his short term memory, but slowly he started to get it back. He knows his future is going to be different but he has come to terms with it quickly and Cade is very strong minded and strong willed.”

Since the incident, the schoolboy has had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) fitted into his body. The battery-powered ICD will restart his heart if he suffers another cardiac arrest. It keeps track of a person’s heart rate. If an abnormal heart rhythm is detected, the device will deliver an electric shock to restore it to normal, according to doctors.

The young boy, whose rare heart condition is known as Long QT where there are problems with the electrical activity of the heart, said, “Thank you to everyone, especially my friends for coming to visit me all the way at GOSH. It’s been an amazing journey and a special thank you to the lifeguard for saving my life and to the wonderful doctors and nurses for looking after me so well. I hate why it happened but love the ICD, as it will keep me safe forever.”

Photo credit: SWNS.com