US Teenager Comes Back To Life After Being Declared Dead

Sammy Berko, a 16-year-old US boy, baffled doctors when he miraculously regained vital signs two hours after being declared dead, as per a report in the Independent. He was taken to the hospital on January 7 after suffering a cardiac arrest while rock climbing at a nearby gym.

Mr Berko was given non-stop CPR by gym staff, emergency personnel and hospital doctors. However, after two hours, the hospital staff broke the sad news to his family. 

After mustering the courage to bid goodbye to her son, Mrs Jennifer Berko said that her husband noticed that Sammy was moving. The medical personnel were startled to see that the teenager was still alive. 

"Each and every one of them afterwards came to us and said that they have never seen anything like this before. Ever. Never had they ever pronounced somebody and suddenly they came back five minutes later," Mrs Berko added. 

She continued, "That feeling of seeing his heartbeat, there are no words for that. There are no words. We just stood there. I mean, grateful is the biggest understatement ever to know that he might make it."

As per the outlet, the boy's brain was oxygen-deprived for at least five minutes which resulted in short-term memory loss. Additionally, he is healing from an ischemic spine injury he suffered after losing consciousness while being lowered from the rock wall he was climbing. The doctor spoke to KRIV and said, "We do see kids all the time here who have had CPR, but with very prolonged CPR, we typically see very severe global anoxic brain injury, so to me, he is a literal miracle."

His parents further added that Sammy's incident was most likely brought on by catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, a rare genetic disorder that claimed the life of their younger son Frankie in 2020. Frankie died as a result of head injuries caused by many epileptic episodes. During his final episode, his father attempted CPR on him, however, he could not save his son.