A Florida-based woman whose heart had stopped beating for 45 minutes during a routine caesarean section surgery miraculously recovered.
"There's very few things in medicine that I've seen, working in the trauma center myself and doing all the things that I do, that really were either unexplainable or miraculous," said Dr. Anthony Dardano, president of the medical staff of the Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro, 40, a Florida resident, had just undergone a caesarean section surgery to give birth to a baby girl when she suffered an amniotic fluid embolism, UPI reports. The incident occurred on 23 September.
The Mayo Clinic explained that this rare condition occurs shortly after childbirth. This happens when the fluid around the baby in the womb enters the mother's bloodstream.
When doctors couldn't find her pulse for a long time, they called her family to inform them that they had done their part, but her heart beat and circulation could not be restored, The Kansas City Star reports. A team of more than 12 doctors and nurses tried to revive the mother-of-two using shock paddles and chest compressions, but their efforts were fruitless as her heart had given out without any warning during the caesarean section.
Graupera-Cassimiro's husband, mother and sister had already said their goodbyes to her. The medical team stopped all lifesaving procedures and were ready to record the time of her death.
However, suddenly, there was a blip of a heartbeat. And slowly the heartbeats grew stronger.
In a matter of hours, Graupera-Cassimiro was tugging at the breathing tube on her face and was also able to scribble notes to her family, Albuquerque Journal reports.
"She essentially spontaneously resuscitated when we were about to call the time of death," said Thomas Chakurda, the hospital spokesman. "Today she is the picture of health," he added.
