Most people call surviving cardiac arrest a miracle in itself. But 5-year-old Owen Coulter survived, even though doctors had to perform 90 minutes of CPR.
According to People magazine, the young boy was resuscitated five different times and then placed on a special type of life support to help him recover.
In December, Owen’s parents had rushed their son to Dell Children’s Medical Center after he started showing alarming symptoms.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Owen had previously gone to the doctor with flu-like symptoms, but he tested negative for the flu and strep throat. When he developed puffy eyes and purplish legs, that’s when his parents knew he needed emergency medical attention.
The family made it to the hospital just in time for Owen’s life-threatening cardiac arrest. Immediately, the ER team organized a group to perform CPR on Owen, rotating people every two minutes. Although everyone could see it was taking a long time, the boy showed promising signs of life, reports Austin American-Statesman.
That’s when the team decided to use a special life support machine called ECMO, which allows the body to bypass the heart and lungs. It gave Owen’s body enough time to rest from his traumatic cardiac event and long CPR.
Doctors believe a virus attacked Owen’s heart, causing it to stop beating.
Although Owen continues to recover and heal, the young boy was able to return home after 56 days in the hospital, states People. He was released on Feb. 7 with a superhero-themed party involving family and medical staff.
Now Owen’s mother, Kristin Coulter, gives regular updates via a Facebook page dedicated to her son’s recovery.
Most recently, Coulter posted that her son was suffering from strep throat, a scare despite the common nature of the illness. Still, Owen has improved by leaps and bounds and even started walking again in March.
Source: Fox
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