Tony Yahle Pronounced Dead; then Wakes Up

I periodically blog about "miracle" cases in which the patient has a wholly unexpected recovery.  For example, see here, here, and here.  Worldwide print, broadcast, and internet media are now covering yet another "miracle" case.



On August 5, clinicians at Kettering Medical Center in Ohio pronounced Tony Yahle dead after a 45-minute code.  At that point, Yahle was truly flatlined.  He had no electrical motion, no respiration, no heart beat, and no blood pressure.  The family was about to view Yahle's body when his heart monitor started registering an irregular heartbeat again.  Yahle soon returned home with a defibrillator in his chest and no other apparent damage. 



An American Heart Association spokesman suggests that more hospitals may want to follow Kettering’s lead and sustain resuscitation efforts for longer than the typical 20 to 25 minutes. A 2012 nationwide study of hospitals showed that in the hospitals where they worked for longer, they got more people back, who ended up surviving and going home.