In 2023, sixteen-year-old Sammy Berko went into sudden cardiac arrest at a climbing wall gym:
"He climbed to the top of the wall, rang the bell, as we were told, and then his body went limp, and it looked like he was either playing around or passed out. They weren't quite sure and when they realized he was unresponsive, they lowered him slowly," said Sammy's mother, Jennifer.
Gym personnel, paramedics, and doctors performed CPR on Sammy for two hours without success. Doctors then left his devastated parents to say their goodbyes.
Five minutes later: "I started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn't know how to save him. Suddenly, as I started praying, my husband said, 'oh my gosh, he's moving,'" exclaims Jennifer.
Despite his prolonged period of cardiac arrest, he is recovering well, with only short term memory loss and weakness in his legs.
"I knew it would be a weird, crazy experience learning to walk again and working on strength without using my legs to be able to balance me. It has just been an amazing experience here actually, like I've noticed that I'm better every day! I'm doing something new every single day," says a smiling and enthusiastic Sammy.
People like Sammy have been documented to spontaneously resume their heart beat and make a full recovery as many as 10 minutes after doctors gave up and stopped resuscitative efforts.
But transplant teams in many US states begin organ harvesting surgery after just 2 minutes of cardiac arrest — during a timeframe when auto-resuscitation is still possible. And if you could still be resuscitated, you were not yet dead.
So why are transplant teams in such a hurry? Because organs very quickly become unsuitable for donation after the heart stops.
Congratulations to Sammy and his family on his recovery, and thanks for demonstrating why people need to refuse our current unethical organ harvesting practices.