Gore Otteson, also known as the 'Lazarus tot,' is one lucky little boy who has been blessed with a second chance at life. One summer evening, while Amy, Gore's mother, was preparing her other children for bed, Gore found his way outside the family cabin and was no where in sight. Panicking, they searched for 25 minutes before finding him trapped facedown underneath a log in an irrigation ditch. His heart had stopped beating and Gore's grandpa began CPR until he was taken by helicopter to the Children's Hospital in Denver. Desperate for a miracle, his parents were willing for Gore to be a subject in an experimental treatment called therapeutic hypothermia where the body's temp is dropped to let the brain heal itself. 48 hours later he was back to his normal temperature and Gore was back to being himself and immediately asked for food! Unexplainably, his brain didn't suffer any damage! Needless to say, his family is very grateful to be celebrating his two year birthday with him a couple weeks later!
The crazy thing about this therapeutic hypothermia thing is that the idea originated from something Hippocrates did quite a long time ago. Hippocrates put his patients in snow in order to lower their body temperatures and successfully healed people that way. It just seems like such a simple concept to be so successful and save so many lives. It reminds me of when doctors use leeches to help reduce swelling; such a seemingly simple yet quite effective method of bringing people back to health. On the page I read this article on there is also a MSNBC video that I watched where I got to see the Ottesons all alive and doing well! Little Gore was running around the set just like a typical two year old would; he was getting into everything and particularly took interest in the TV monitors. Anyway, it was definitely nice to read about a news story that has a happy ending!
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39215752/ns/today-today_people/
No comments:
Post a Comment