Woman survives 45 minutes without pulse

Washington, Nov 10 (IANS/EFE) A woman in the US managed to survive after going 45 minutes without a heartbeat due to complications from the Cesarean section she underwent in a hospital, a media report said Monday.

Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro, 40, a resident of Boca Raton, north of Miami city, went 45 minutes without a pulse, and the desperate resuscitation attempts by a medical team made up of 12 physicians and nurses failed to revive her. They called her family to her side and told them there was nothing more they could do to save her life.

Her family cried over the woman in the operating room as doctors began turning off the monitors and proceeded to abandon the procedures to revive her -- when suddenly a monitor detected the first heartbeat, then another and another, the daily Sun-Sentinel said.

"She essentially spontaneously resuscitated when we were about to call the time of death," Thomas Chakurda, spokesperson for the Boca Raton Regional Hospital, said.

Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro had given birth to a healthy baby girl before some amniotic liquid entered her bloodstream and heart and stopped her circulation, a situation that is generally fatal.

Chakurda called the woman's survival doubly miraculous because she not only survived 45 minutes without a pulse or heartbeat, but she also escaped without any brain damage.

Up to now, doctors have been unable to provide a scientific explanation for the woman's "resurrection."

--IANS/EFE

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