Ruby Graupera-Cassimiro walked into Boca Raton Regional Hospital for a cesarean section and very nearly didn't walk back out.
The 40-year-old Florida woman successfully delivered a healthy baby girl. The delivery was uneventful by all standards. Joy quickly turned to dread as Graupera-Cassimiro began to experience shortness of breath, then suddenly stopped breathing.
Doctors and nurses leapt into action as a controlled chaos descended upon Graupera-Cassimiro's room. Doctors called a code and began the exhausting battle against time to save her life.
The woman who had just held her newborn daughter, was now lying on a table as doctors fought for to restart her heart. For 45 minutes, she had no pulse.
Doctors were terrified when they realized that her heart was beating a pulseless rhythm: her heart was beating but not pumping any blood throughout her body.
They delivered continuous CPR compressions for 45 minutes straight to encourage her heart to work properly.
But, after two hours, he doctors began to believe that there was no hope for her. They believed that she had experienced a highly-fatal amniotic fluid embolism. It happens after delivery, when amnoiotic fluid leaks into the blood stream causing blood clots and cardiac arrest.
Doctors called her family into the room to say their final goodbyes then quietly ushered them out again. A few nurses stepped into the waiting room with her extended family and frantically began to pray on their knees for her life.
Her doctor was seconds away from turning off her ventilator when a nurse saw something that made her shout "Stop!"
Without medical intervention, Graupera-Cassimiro's heart spontaneously started to beat on its own for the first time in two hours!
Doctors were astounded, this kind of thing almost never happens! Dr. Knurr told Reader's Digest, "usually the patient passes away or has significant brain damage." "It's a miracle. I'm not a highly religious person, but you just don't see this happen."
Graupera-Cassimiro didn't just come back to life, she walked out of that hospital in perfect health.
"Someone else was running the show that day; there's no doubt in my mind," Ruby says, "I don't know why God chose me, but I know he gave me this life again for a reason."
[h/t Reader's Digest / ABC News]
