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Woman Dies, Doctors Bring Her Back To Life


Cathy Davis was on her way into work on a typical Monday morning. Less than an hour later, she was dead.

Cathy, 45, was heading into work at Mutual of Omaha. She was walking into the underground tunnel.

"I turn the corner to walk into the next tunnel and all of a sudden out of nowhere...I feel a hot flash." said Davis.

At this point, Cathy started feeling faint. She started reaching for the walls and looking for a bench. Then, she blacked out.

"As I'm sitting there is when it hits. The actual pain. And what was happening was I couldn't get a good breath. I'm just goIng, Gasp, Gasp." said Cathy.

Co-workers at Mutual of Omaha rushed to help. They called 911. Cathy was taken to The Nebraska Medical Center.

Her husband, Todd, got the call.

"They said she had fallen and hit her head and they put her on an ambulance." said Todd. "I said, okay. I'm on my way thinking she fell. She might need a couple of stitches."

Cathy remembers arriving at the hospital.

"I raised my head up on the gurney and I could see all these people running beside me." said Cathy.

The fall had left her with a bruised eye and knee. But the fall was the least of it.

Dr. James Sullivan, The Nebraska Medical Center, said, "She had a very large clot in the right pulmonary artery, there's two pulmonary arteries. Effectively half of her cardiac output had been completely cut off."

Todd got the news his wife was clinging to life. She had a blood clot that had traveled from her heart into her lungs.

"A nurse comes back into the room and tells me I've got to get back in there now!" said Todd.

Cathy's heart had stopped. She flatlined.

Dr. Sullivan said, "She was dead. There's no doubt about it. She was dead for a short period of time."

Dr. Sullivan made a call. He started doing chest compressions.

Todd said, "They're working their tails off to try to save her, doing CPR. It's very aggressive."

Doctors placed Cathy on an ECMO machine. It's a heart and lung bypass machine that basically breathes for the patient.

"Without that machine, she would have stayed dead." said Dr. Sullivan.

"In my opinion, they acted like heroes." said Todd.

Two days later, they began weaning Cathy off the machine.

"They're ready to take me off the ventilator. Sat me up. Pulled it out and said can you talk. I wasn't sure so I just said "I Don't Know." said Cathy.

Cathy had to have a few more blood clots removed, but her progress was great. Eight days after arriving at The Nebraska Medical Center, she walked out of the hospital.

"My heart’s back to normal, my lungs are back to normal it’s kind of like it didn’t really happen." said Cathy. "It wasn't my time to go."

"She is a miracle, a miracle." said Dr. Sullivan.

Cathy says she didn't see anything when she was dead.

She gives credit to the doctors and nurses who fought to save her.

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