California Man Awakes Just in Time
Part Two of Two

By Dave Andrusko

Editor's note. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. They are very much appreciated.

It seems as if you hear about one of these cases every couple of months. It makes you wonder how many times the patient suddenly responds just as doctors are about to "pull the plug" (as it is invariable described in newspaper accounts) and how many more times life support is withdrawn prematurely (and fatally) from a patient who would otherwise have recovered.

The latest case is 56-year-old Mike Connolly, a giant of a man, who began to respond just before physicians implemented the decision to take him off "life support." (What that means was not spelt out in the story, which you can read in its entirety at http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/02/16/news/coastal/oceanside/z2c380328ce6aed
428825755f007dcc90.txt.)

"Though doctors had pronounced Connolly's case hopeless and said his brain would never recover, today he is showing steady progress," writes Paul Sisson. "Those same doctors say Connolly seems headed for a full recovery." Family and physicians are describing Connolly, not unexpectedly, as the "miracle man."

At 6 feet 8 inches and weighing more than 250 pounds, Connolly's heart stopped January 31. Paramedics arrived in an amazingly short period of time but best guesses are that his brain was without oxygen for at least ten minutes, according to Martin Nielsen, Connolly's pulmonary doctor.
 

Mike Connolly is greeted by his wife, Loris,  at Tri-City Medical Center on Monday

Nielson told Sisson that this length of time "usually results in severe brain damage if a patient ever regains consciousness."

When the unconscious Connolly arrived at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, California, doctors used special cooling blankets to lower his temperature to help keep his brain from swelling and reduce the amount of brain damage.

"After 24 hours of cooling, doctors tried to bring Connolly out of an induced coma, but every time they did, he suffered seizures," Sisson writes. "Seizures, Nielsen said, are usually a sign that a patient is not going to recover. The family prepared for the worst, but prayed nonetheless."

Although the exact sequence is unclear from the story, sometime last week the family agreed to withdraw life support.

His stepson, Michael Cooper, was reading Scripture beside Connolly's hospital bed "when he saw a tear slide down the man's cheek," Sisson writes.

The significance was lost on Michael Cooper until after he started walking down the hallway and heard a shout from a family member still in the room. "He said Mike was responding," Cooper told Sisson.

"I didn't believe him, but I went back in there, and it was true. You would say his name, and he would turn his head toward you. It was a miracle."

Part One