Surat woman cheats death

SURAT: It was like a second birth for Nimisha Patel, a 40-year-old housewife from Udhana. She was revived 48 minutes after her pulse stopped and was declared dead by the doctors while on the operation table.
Patel, who was suffering from the parotid tumor, was being operated upon by city-based cosmetic and plastic surgeon Dr Mayur Lekhadia and his team of physicians. It was a planned surgery and Patel had undergone all pre-operative procedure where all her reports were normal.
“After 40 minutes into the surgery, Patel underwent cardiac arrest with sudden loss of pulsation and low blood pressure. We were worried but continued our efforts to revive her back with shock and other treatments,” Lekhadia told TOI.
After 25 minutes when she did not respond with continuous flat line on cardiascope monitor, Patel was declared dead by Lekhadia and his team. “We even informed the patient’s relatives standing outside the operation room about the death,” the doctor said.
“But doctors kept on giving her DC shock and she responded at the 48th minute and the rest is miracle,” he added.
Lekhadia said it was a miracle in the medical history as the maximum time reported of reversal of cardiac arrest without pulse was 45 minutes of a woman who underwent routine caesarian section surgery at one of the hospitals in Florida (USA) in November 2014.
Patel, who lives with her 17-year-old son at Udhana, said, “It is nothing less than a miracle. God has rewarded me with a second life. Thus, I will now will celebrate my birthday on February 2 every year.”
Lekhadia is now preparing to present this unique case in major medical journals in India and abroad.
“If you won’t get oxygen for three minutes, chances of brain getting damaged are very high and the patient could go into permanent coma. In Patel’s case, however, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, continuous oxygen and cardiac massage proved very effective and hence the brain circulation was not affected and the patient could be revived without any damage to brain cells,” Lekhadia said.
On further investigation after surgery it was found that Patel was suffering from ‘autoimmune collagen disease’ a form of adrenal deficiency, that led to the cardiac arrest during the surgery.