I’ve had this in the virtual file cabinet for a week or so. It’s still freaks me out.
BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A hospital worker preparing a 22-month-old for a funeral home noticed the boy was breathing – more than an hour after he had been pronounced dead from drowning.
Logan Pinto apparently wandered away from his baby sitter Thursday and fell into a canal near his home in Rexburg, about 275 miles east of Boise. He was submerged for nearly 30 minutes before police found him a half-mile downstream, said Rexburg police Capt. Randy Lewis.
Though an officer gave him CPR and emergency workers did everything they could to revive him, Lewis said, the boy was pronounced dead when it appeared the effort had failed. After giving the boy
As a paramedic, we were trained–no, it was actually drilled into us–that a cold-water drowning victim isn’t dead until he’s “warm and dead”. When the inborn diver’s reflex kicks in (spasm of the larynx, blocking fluid entry into the lungs), and the patient becomes hypothermic from prolonged cold-water submersion, the body goes into a state similar to that of a hibernating animal, and the victim can be re-warmed and revived without any serious long-term effects (submersion of nearly an hour and complete recovery has been documented). It’s clear in this case that emergency workers and hospital personnel didn’t really do “everything they could”.
All-in-all, the boy’s chances are good for not having brain damage . . . still, that doesn’t excuse poor treatment.
It’s good to know he has a shot at not having brain damage. I’m sure his youth helps as well.