Girl survives after 18 minutes underwater

[chovesh 1]

Invisible pending correction of copyright infringement

PARAMEDICS could barely find a pulse when Oluchi Nwaubani was pulled lifeless from a swimming pool.

After spending 18 minutes under water, the two-year-old was not breathing and doctors put her chances of survival at only one in 50.

Surgeons even discussed with her parents the possibility of switching off her life-support machine.

But Junior and Tayo refused and, three days later, their daughter started to breathe again.

Five months on, she has made a full recovery.

Brain scans revealed that Oluchi had been starved of oxygen for 18 minutes after falling into the pool at a friend's house.

The brain usually dies after around six minutes without oxygen and the heart usually stops after ten.

Mr Nwaubani, a 40-year-old prison officer, said: 'Doctors were telling us she was never going to pull through because she had been under the water for too long.

'If by a miracle she did survive, she would be very severely disabled and would have to be looked after all her life.

'They told us it might be better to turn off her life-support machine but my wife and I are both Christians and we just prayed to God that she would pull through.

'The doctors said there was a faint pulse so we clung on to that When Oluchi started breathing, we were told not to get our hopes up because she was still very poorly.

'But Oluchi is a fighter and she shocked everyone with her progress.' She was treated at Great Ormond Street children's hospital in Central London.

Mark Peters, an intensive care specialist there, said: 'When she was admitted she had suffered a terrible and prolonged cardiac arrest which was right at the limit of what is known to be survivable.

'Paramedics, the receiving hospital and ourselves went to enormous lengths to restore her.

Although we knew the odds were stacked against her, we were determined to see what we could do.

Obviously we're delighted she pulled through and delighted to hear she's doing so well.' Oluchi, who has two sisters, is recovering at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Farnborough, near her home in Petts Wood, South-East London.

Her father says the only evidence of September's drama is a minor problem with the speech of Oluchi, who is now three.

r.kisiel@dailymail.co.uk

DEFYING THE ODDS

IN most cases where the body is under water and starved of oxygen, brain cells start to die off within four or five minutes in a condition known as hypoxia.

Even if they survive, patients usually suffer some form of brain damage and might also be left with long-term slurred speech, muscular problems and other neurological difficulties.

But surgeons say that cold water can slow down the rate at which brain cells die by lowering the pulse.

Ffion Davies, an emergency paediatric consultant, said: 'It is extremely unusual for a child to survive after being that long under the water. It is even more unusual that she has made a full recovery. The cold water must have slowed down the body's metabolism.'

Edited February 11, 2009 by Chris192
Copyright