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 Audrey Mash's ordeal began on Nov. 3 when she and her husband were
out hiking in the Catalan Pyrenees. As the weather took a turn for
the worse, Mash, who lives in Barcelona, began experiencing trouble
speaking and moving.
The doctors at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron Hospital said she had
suffered the longest documented cardiac arrest in Spain. "It's an
exceptional case in the world," doctor Eduard Argudo told reporters
on Thursday.
She said she had no memory of those six long hours. "Amazing. It's
like a miracle except that it's all because of the doctors," she
told Catalan broadcaster TV3.
As the time passed on the mountain, Mash fell unconscious and
husband Rohan Schoeman told TV3 he thought she was dead. "I was
trying to feel a pulse ... I couldn't feel a breath, I couldn't feel
a heartbeat," he said.
By the time rescuers reached the couple two hours later, Mash's body
temperature had dropped to 18 degrees Celsius (64 Fahrenheit) and
when she reached the hospital, she had no vital signs.
"She looked as though she was dead," Argudo, her doctor, added in a
statement. "But we knew that, in the context of hypothermia, Audrey
had a chance of surviving."
Hypothermia, while also bringing her to the brink of death, had also
protected her body and brain from deteriorating, he said. "If she
had been in cardiac arrest for this long at a normal body
temperature, she would be dead."
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Racing against time, doctors turned to a specialized machine capable
of removing blood, infusing it with oxygen and reintroducing it to
the patient.
Once Mash's temperature had reached 30 degrees Celsius, doctors
turned to the defibrillator. Her heart jumped back into action, some
six hours after emergency services were first contacted.
Twelve days later she was released from hospital, nearly fully
recovered and with only lingering issues in the mobility and
sensitivity of her hands due to the hypothermia.
"We were very worried about any neurological damage," said Argudo.
"Given there are practically no cases of people who have had their
heart stop for so long and been revived."
Mash said she hoped to be back hiking by the spring.
"I don't want this to take away this hobby from me," she said.
(Reporting by Joan Faus and Ashifa Kassam; Editing by Alison
Williams)
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