Boy 'Dead' for Nearly 40 Minutes After Falling Into Pool Makes Complete Recovery
Arizon Parents of Caleb Teodorescu Say 'It Was God's Hand at Work'
Parents of 2-year-old Caleb Teodorescu are crediting God with their son’s complete recovery after the young boy was technically dead for almost 40 minutes after falling into the family pool.
Caleb’s mother found the toddler facedown at the bottom of their family pool in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 25. The boy had reportedly wandered out the home through the screen door while he playing with his sisters, subsequently riding his scooter into the pool.
After Mihaela Teodorescu found her son in the pool, she discovered that his heart had stopped beating. Police and paramedics were finally able to get Caleb’s heart beating again and he began breathing on his own shortly thereafter, while in the hospital.
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“He quite literally died outside the hospital,” Dr. Corey Philpot, a presiding doctor over Caleb’s case at the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, told ABC News.
“I was crying out to God,” Caleb’s mother Mihaela Teodorescu told ABC 15 News.
“I was saying ‘God you cannot take him from me. I know he has to be a servant for you, and I do not believe that this is your plan, to take him away like this.’ I said, 'Lord, I want him back and I want him back whole, and I know you can do it,’ ” she said.
Doctors released Caleb after a week of tests at the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center in Glendale, determining that the 2-year-old exhibited normal behavior after a near-tragedy which usually leaves victims with severe brain trauma.
According to The Arizona Republic, victims of such trauma usually take 6 to 12 months to recover, if they recover at all.
“He looks remarkable considering what happened to him,” pediatric intensivist Dr. Budi Wiryawan told The Arizona Republic.
Doctors told Caleb’s father, Ovi, that Caleb’s case was “the best, of the best, of the best,” according to ABC News.
According to the Daily Mail, doctors put Caleb into “therapeutic hypothermia,” which temporarily placed him in a hibernating state by lowering his body temperature.
This slowed Caleb’s brain functions to prevent damage, and after 24 hours, doctors slowly re-warmed his body.
“He started to move, and then his movements became purposeful, and then he opened his eyes. We could tell that he was on the quick road to recovery,” Dr. Philpot said.
“I don't know what the plan is, but I know for sure that God has a special plan for him. It was God's hand at work, such things just don't happen, even the doctors acknowledged that,” said Caleb's father, according to Fox 10 News in Phoenix. “It’s just amazing, the best Christmas present you could get.”
