Woman Came Back From the Dead After 17 Hours with No Measurable Brain Waves

Posted by Alex in Medicine on May 27, 2008 at 4:40 pm


After Velma Thomas’ heart stopped beating three times and more than 17 hours with no measurable brain waves, her family said their goodbyes and took her off life support.

Then something completely unexpected happened: she miraculously came back to life!

"There were really no signs she had neurological functions," Kevin Eggleston, an internist, told ABC News. "There was no life there," her son, Tim Thomas, told the Charleston Daily Mail. "Her skin had already started hardening, her hands and toes were curling up." [...]

Family members left the hospital to make funeral arrangements. That’s when they say a miracle happened.

Ten minutes after the medical staff stopped the respirator — while nurses were removing the tubing — Velma Thomas woke up. "She moved her arm, and we thought it was reflexes," Pence told ABC News.

Nurses hurried to call Tim Thomas, who was already a few miles away, on his cell phone. They told him that his mother was moving and had a heart rate, Tim Thomas told the Daily Mail.

Velma Thomas had moved her arm and foot, then she coughed and moved her eyes. Amazingly, Thomas began speaking.

Link




Previous post
this post? Please email this            
Next post
FROM THE NEATORAMA ONLINE STORE » more



COMMENT

12 comments to "Woman Came Back From the Dead After 17 Hours with No Measurable Brain Waves"

  1. rdubs
    May 27th, 2008 at 5:05 pm

    SHE’S A ZOMBIE!!!!!
    WE MUST CONTAIN THE DISEASE!

  2. neko
    May 27th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

    it’s 17 minutes, not hours.
    http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/05/22/womans_recovery_a_medic al_mystery/3027/

  3. bean
    May 27th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    This isn’t that uncommon. There are plenty of documented cases of people not showing any vital signs, and then snapping to when taken off life support.

  4. Mattie
    May 27th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=300

    Much more accurate and scientifically focused article on the incident.

  5. someguy
    May 27th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Mattie,

    I know this story has its share of reporting problems in the media, but I wouldn’t trust that blog for accuracy. They seem to be pretty heavily biased over there.

  6. Random_Tangent
    May 27th, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    If by biased you mean that the author has made some attempt at establishing what the facts of the situation are, then yes, it is a terribly biased blog.

    If someone was lying around for 17 hours with no circulation, they’re not going to wake up.

  7. Christophe
    May 27th, 2008 at 10:18 pm

    FAIL!

    Failed to plug in correctly the brainwave thingamagic?

  8. head
    May 27th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

    “Give me head till I’m dead” - t-shirt in a movie

  9. edselpdx
    May 27th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    This is an excellent example of terrible medical reporting. Neuologicablog is the first good review of the reporting and the likely facts of the case I’ve seen. This case has been parroted all over the internet, and I’m too furious at the lousy reporting and medical inaccuracies to even go into the issues that neurologica has already nicely summarized.

  10. ted
    May 28th, 2008 at 7:07 am

    Either inaccurate reporting or really bad doctoring.

  11. Thomas
    May 28th, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    I agree with rdubs: she is clearly a zombie and must be decapitated.

  12. Gisen
    May 29th, 2008 at 1:00 pm

    LIES.

    This is just really bad reporting, neurologica and the other site mentioned get it right. 17 Hours my arse.


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS