Mar 24, 2009 9:00 pm US/Eastern
Heart Attack Victim Saved By Hypothermia Blanket
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
-
-
Siegred Buhlheller. (File)
CBS
Doctors in White Plains saved a woman who was having a heart attack by using new technology designed to lower her body temperature, reports CBS station WCBS-TV in New York.
Siegred Buhlheller cheated death and has an hypothermia blanket to thank for it. "I'm really grateful," she said.
The 49-year old reunited Tuesday with the rescuers who found her on a couch last month, knocking on death's door.
"She was in cardiac arrest and she didn't have a pulse, she wasn't breathing," said paramedic Alyssa Berkowitz.
Paramedics restarted her heart, but doctors at White Plains Hospital were concerned about her brain so they tried something new.
Dr. Eric Larson decided to use an hypothermia blanket for the first time in hospital history. "We've got the machine, get them out of the box, let's do this," he said.
The blanket was designed to drop Buhlheller's body from it's normal temperature down to about 90 degrees, with the hope of protecting her brain.
"When the brain gets no blood flow, it starts to, the brain starts to die. And the cell death is not instant but all kinds of things start happening. What the cold does is we try to put that into suspension," Larson said.
After 24 anxious hours under the blanket, the nurse from Germany was back. "When I left her room, I said 'Siegrid, please give me a sign', and she blinked with her eyes," said Bertholp Buhlheller, Siegrid's husband.
"It's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable," Siegrid said.
Days later, with no neurological damage, Bulheller was home with her family and a new lease on life.
"I was sometimes really upset at the small things, but now I'm grateful and thankful," Bulheller said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
