Archive - Dec 5, 2008

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It took five mighty shocks to get Cynthia Crawford's heart to start beating again after she collapsed at Ochsner Clinic a few weeks ago. A dramatic rescue, to be sure, yet it was routine care she could have had at any hospital. What came next, though, was not. As she lay unconscious, barely clinging to life, doctors placed her in an inflatable cocoon-like pool that sprayed her naked body with hundreds of icy cold jets of water, plunging her into hypothermia.

"Like jumping in the North Sea," said the cardiologist leading her care, Dr. Paul McMullan.

Days later, Crawford was recovering without the brain damage she might have suffered.

ATLANTA -- Bernardo Soto, 11, is back in class after suffering sudden cardiac arrest in a school hallway.

His assistant principal at Chestnut Log Middle School in Douglas County helped save his life with quick thinking, good training and the right equipment.

“This was a divine moment and divine timing,”said Assistant Principal Greg Williams. “I feel great every time I see him. It was a meant-to-be moment.”

Soto, a sixth-grader, had no idea his heart was in trouble until he collapsed on September 26 on his way to first period.

“Do you remember waking up and feeling funny that day?” 11Alive’s Jennifer Leslie asked Soto.

“Yes,” he replied.

It turned out he was suffering from sudden cardiac arrest, which is usually deadly.

“I had not doubt we were gonna get Bernardo through this,” Williams said. “No doubt.”