A hiker who was rescued after getting lost in a whiteout in a Washington state park “came back from the dead” at a hospital after …
A hiker who was rescued after getting lost in a whiteout in a Washington state park “came back from the dead” at a hospital after his heart stopped for 45 minutes, in what doctors are calling an astonishing recovery. Michael Knapinski,45, “died” at the Harborview Medical Center’s ER after being airlifted from Mount Rainier National Park on Nov.8, The Seattle Times reported. He had a pulse when he arrived at the hospital but his heart stopped shortly thereafter, Dr. Jenelle Badulak told the newspaper. “He died while he was in the ER, which gave us the unique opportunity to try and save his life by basically bypassing his heart and lungs, which is the most advanced form of artificial life support that we have in the world,” Badulak said. He remained dead for about 45 minutes as a medical team administered CPR and hooked him up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine, which pumps blood to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back, she told the paper.
