A 16-year-old boy with no heartbeat after being electrocuted was brought back to life by doctors at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi.

In what might be called a miracle, a 16-year-old boy who suffered from a severe electric shock was brought back to life after coming in contact with a high voltage live wire that had fallen on an iron railing, at his shop. The incident occurred in Old Delhi when the boy was inspecting damage caused to his shop due to heavy rains that lashed the city.

The boy was found in a lifeless condition by people from nearby in a state of shock, stuck motionless to railing while current still running through his body. He could only be rescued after 10 minutes when people got the electricity supply cut from the powerhouse of that area.

He was rushed to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and was admitted on 1st August. On admission, the patient had no heartbeat, an absent pulse rate and progressively falling blood pressure owing to the damage caused by the continuous flow of electricity to his body. With exceptionally low chances of survival, Dr Priyadarshini Pal, Emergency Head, Emergency & Critical Care, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals and her team quickly responded to his critical condition and with timely treatment the patient regained his consciousness after 36 hours, and was discharged after five days of his treatment on 5th August.

Dr Priyadarshini Pal, said, “The boy was brought into the Emergency in an unconscious and unresponsive state and did not have a heartbeat. Upon evaluation it was discovered that due to the severe and prolonged electric shock he had suffered a cardiac arrest and his pulse could not be felt. We immediately gave him a CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to try and revive the patient. The process was extremely critical because any delay in CPR after a cardiac arrest could have led to a possible irreversible brain damage, but we were able to revive the patient after CPR that lasted for an unusual time of almost 45 minutes. “

Dr Sudhir Tyagi, Senior Consultant, Neurology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said, “Such cases are very critical as slight delays can cause irreparable damage to the brain. If this patient had not been given CPR immediately it could have led to a condition of decrease in flow of oxygen to the brain (brain hypoxia). This condition can manifest brain damage in the form of severe neurological deficit, delayed or complete inability of the patient to regain consciousness and weakness/numbness in different parts of the body. Even if the patient had regained consciousness, there was possibility that his cognitive brain functions like- memory, responsiveness, recognition would be adversely affected.

“Timely treatment and quick response to his deteriorating condition is what saved the patient’s life.
Fortunately, his other organs had not suffered any damage, hence after 36 hours the patient regained full consciousness. His progress was closely monitored for five days and the patient was discharged in a healthy state after that”, she further added.

Expressing his gratitude to the Apollo team, the patient’s brother said, “We had lost hope when initially the doctors informed us that chances of my brother’s survival are low, but Dr Pal and her team put in all their efforts and helped bring him back to life”.