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Little Girl Survives 18 Minutes Under Water
FEBRUARY 12, 2009Aparna Atluru, HappyNews StaffThree-year-old Oluchi Nwaubani fell into a freezing swimming pool in September and spent eighteen minutes underwater. Her brain was deprived of oxygen for three times as long as the brain can usually survive without it.
Doctors were surprised that she was even alive, but told her parents to prepare for the worst. They cautioned her parents that even if their daughter recovered, she’d likely be in a vegetative state. Her father, Junior, says they relied on their Christian faith to help them pull through.
And pull through she did! Doctors now expect Oluchi to make a full recovery. Dr. Vinay Nadkarni of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia says Oluchi’s recovery is very rare. Oluchi was able to make it because some babies have a reflex called the diving reflex, which allows the body to slow down their metabolism to almost nothing, so the body needs very little oxygen for brain cells to survive. A mixture of luck, genetics, and wonderful patient care have given Oluchi a second chance at life. Read more about the Nwaubani family and Oluchi's recovery: www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/11/earlyshow/main4792234
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