No Heartbeat? Not A Problem!

The British woman’s heart did not beat for 6 hours, but doctors brought her back to life.

Doctors already claimed this situation to be extraordinary.

Doctors brought a British woman back to life. Her heart did not beat for 6 hours. This is the longest heart failure that has ever been registered in Spain.

In November, Audrey Schoeman and her husband went hiking to the Iberian Mountains, where a snowstorm covered them. The 34-year-old Audrey had symptoms of severe hypothermia: it became difficult for her to speak, and then even move. She passed out.

Her husband Roan called for an emergency. However, even before the lifeguards arrived, the woman’s condition had sharply deteriorated and Roan considered that she had died. 2 hours later, rescuers arrived. At this point, Audrey’s body temperature had dropped to 18 degrees Celsius.

When the woman was taken to the hospital in Barcelona, she showed no signs of life. However, according to the doctor, the chill that nearly killed Audrey helped her survive. Hypothermia protected her body and brain from destruction while she was unconscious.

Doctors had to urgently use a special extracorporeal oxygenation machine, which takes blood from the patient, saturates it with oxygen and then drives it back to the circulatory system. Over time she warmed up, so when the body temperature rose to 30 degrees, doctors used a defibrillator to restore a heartbeat.

6 hours passed from the moment when the man called the emergency, to when her heart was started again. After 12 days, Audrey Schoeman was released from the hospital. Hypothermia affected the mobility and sensitivity of the hands, but there were no other signs of clinical death.

Audrey Schoeman, who permanently resides in Barcelona, has now recovered almost completely and hopes to start hiking again by spring.