Doctor terms Fabrice Muamba’s recovery as ‘miraculous’ after being ‘dead’ for 78 minutes

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Bolton Wanderer’s team doctor Jonathan Tobin has revealed that midfielder Fabrice Muamba wasn’t alive for around 78 minutes, and could survive only due to artificial breathing.

There were 48 minutes between Muamba’s collapse and his arrival at the London Chest Hospital, and another half-hour before his heart could be restarted.

“In effect, he was dead in that time,” The Telegraph quoted Tobin, as saying.

So serious was Muamba’s condition that while waiting in the hospital corridor for news, Tobin did not expect the player to be revived from the death.

But, after no fewer than 15 shocks from a defibrillator, the first two on the pitch and another in the players’ tunnel, Muamba began to produce his own pulse.

Paramedics also managed regular chest compressions to mimic a heartbeat, and to provide circulation to his brain.

The cardiologist who administered the emergency treatment on the White Hart Lane pitch, Andrew Deaner, described it as “a miracle”.

Deaner said: “If you’re going to use the term miraculous, I guess it could be used.”

Tobin gave Muamba mouth to mouth in an effort to restore his respiratory function, a procedure he administered in front of almost 40,000 football fans.

“I can’t begin to explain the pressure that was there,” Tobin said.

“Fabrice was in a type of cardiac arrest where the heart is showing lots of electrical activity but no muscular activity. It’s something that often responds to drugs and shocks,” he said.

“Fabrice had, in total, 15 shocks. He had a further 12 shocks in the ambulance [after three at the ground],” he added.