During death, oxygen is a double-edged sword

Watching Dr. Gupta on Colbert, I kept thinking of Joseph Glanvill.

"There is the will which dieth not. Who knows the mysteries of the will, with its vigor? What is God but a great will pervading all things by nature of its intentness? Man doth not yield himself unto the angels, nor to death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will."

I had a double bypass May 1994. After surgery they lost me and could not get me to breathe or my heart to beat without all the support machines. This lasted for over 10 hours. However my wife would not give up and because of our faith walk She gave me to God and petitioned for Him to turn the machines off and restore me. I am still here as the machines stopped after her prayer and I responded by breathing and my heart to start beating. I woke up Monday morning from the surgery Friday morning. I walked out of the hospital Wednesday morning and was back in school studing toward my Masters in Theology Saturday. Back to work in two weeks. Doctors and the hospitals are tools of God and He is in control. For the last 15 plus years I have been allowed by God to be involved in over 15 prayer miracle healings. Faith in God includes believing that He uses everything to accomplish His will. We now have a wonderful Gen MD who knows God and the cardiologist who was in chage of the heart operation found out that faith and prayer are as important as medical science. God bless you for the commitment to trying to help people learn about health issues.

This is in reference to the piece on doing CPR with compressions alone. Great – learned something new that could be helpful some day.
However, The story on the young man who was revived by his parents left me with questions about that story in particular- why did his heart stop; how was the length of time it was stopped confirmed? The dad told the dispatcher that the son was breathing, the mom said he held his arm over his face whe she first went to wake him ... They
aren't about the CPR, I know, but the story felt as if it was overedited ... 15 minutes seems like a long time to go w/o brain damage. Is that wrong?

Dear Dr.Sanjay Gupta,

As a man who cheated death myself I have much admiration and respect for all the medical professional invoved with saving my life in Bradenton Florida.
Nearly one year ago today I layed dying on my garage floor with only the company of my Great Dane.I was discoverd by The Bradenton Police on the advice of my cousin to open the door to my home.I was told by my cousin that the first thing the police officer said was "call next of kin".
My memory of the struggle to live is vague.I was told that the EMS worked on me for nearly an hour before I was rushed to Manatee Memorial Hospital and spent the better part of three weeks in a coma.
I remember my sister was looking at me when I awake and said "do you know where you are"?I did not know where I was or why my sister who lived some 1200 miles away was staring at me.I did not know where I was or how much damage my body had endured from the moment I seized until I regained conciousness..
It has been nearly a year ago today that this incident happened and writing this tale is cathartic.My body has nearly recoverd from the trauma.I feel great and am glad I am alive to share this tale.

Dennis Putrino

Dr. Gupta, tho't you might be interested in my recent cheating death experience. Sept 9 Labor Day had a cardiac arrest on my front porch while playing with grandchildren, I'm 54. Long story short is my oldest daughter is a first year nursing student, had just recently completed
CPR training. She started CPR immediately, other neighbors were helping, emergency vehicle arrived within 5 minutes (!) to defrib. I coded 4 more times and was defrib'd before it was over with. A week later she received her CPR certification in the mail. Local paper ran front page article featuring my daughter and the need for CPR training. I'm a minister, and now our church staff is going to be doing CPR training, It's had quite an impact on our small community, Hot Springs, Arkansas, with several speaking to me about getting CPR training. We may even offer it to anyone in our congregation who is interested. Thanks, your features are always interesting, the one today on the coach who had cardiac arrest certainly caught my eye! Dru Dodson

As a registered nurse for more than 35 years and still working I was fascinated by the information you have recently shared with the viewers. Specifically in treating cardiac arrest with cold IV solutions etc. Makes a lot of sense. I have a strong ECC background and a former BCLS instructor. So my question is this. If you are in a resucitation situation would it be wise to have someone apply bags of ice directly onto the body even while you are doing compressions. Or place the bags of ice on both carotid arteries. To me it makes sense in lowering the body temperature when you do not have access to the refrigerated IV solutions.
Please give your opinion.
Thank you so much. I love that you are a part of the CNN family

I had a massive heart attack in 2005 at the age of 40, after being a physically fit construction sub-contractor for many years. There were no indications of the blockage in my heart that was the cause of my misfortune. I layed on the floor for many minutes while my girlfriend, at the time, called my co-worker to ask what she ought to do. After being non-responsive on the floor i was whisked by ambulance to the hospital. Numerous electric shocks were administered by Dr Onyenkwere of Alabama because he had lost me twice. I stayed in a coma for about a month after stabilization and had to reprogram my mind to eat, talk, walk and remember long term processes. Everyday after the first 5 minutes of awaking, for 4 yrs., it felt as though someone had hit me in the side of the head with a 2×4, causing excruciating pain and dizziness. It has been almost 5yrs. now and i know that will be disabled for the rest of my life. I had a few surgeries including a stent, triple by-pass, removal of dead material on my heart to prevent some of the congestion and two defibrillator implants which cost hundreds of thousand of dollars for all services. My clarity and physical capacity is getting better everyday thanks mostly for the prayers of my mother, families, church and my Semper Fi mentality to NEVER QUIT. I will never be able to run a block or exert myself to the extent of what i was ever to do before, but i now see life in a clearer perception in what in can still do. Thank you for the opportunity to give credence to the advanced cardiology expertise that doctors have evolved to and the compassion for life that they live by.