# Doctor Died For 85 Minutes—Then His Wife Prayed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWPifrbiUk4

[00:00] My name is Dr. Sha.
[00:02] George and in 2008 I died.
[00:06] Dr. Sha was a highly qualified general physician who tragically had a sudden cardiac arrest.
[00:13] It was like a scene from a movie.
[00:15] There was a huge amount of tension and a corpse.
[00:17] Seeing that body was very, very hard.
[00:20] When someone's clinically dead, all it takes is 20 minutes for the brain to irreversibly die.
[00:25] He was clinically dead for well over an hour.
[00:28] I announced to the room that Sha was dead.
[00:33] I thought I have lost my best friend.
[00:37] She not by the bard and pride God I need a miracle.
[00:44] It's an extraordinary story.
[00:47] I have never heard of that happening.
[00:49] It's unbelievable.
[00:50] Absolutely couldn't believe it.
[00:52] I've never seen this before in my life.
[00:53] No one's ever heard a story anything like it.
[00:55] There's not just conjecture, there is proof.
[01:00] Sha was dead.
[01:14] I haven't seen many things that I would call a miracle.
[01:16] In fact, I don't think I've seen anything I'd call a miracle except for this.
[01:23] I think people often expect miracle claims to come from the uneducated or unqualified.
[01:28] So what's your profession?
[01:31] I'm a professor of emergency medicine, senior consultant physician, staff nephrologist, paramedic, senior medical officer.
[01:37] I was doing all the forensic work in the whole district.
[01:40] And what would you say to people who expect claims like these to come from a religious bias?
[01:43] This is not something that was happening in a religious sort of closed bubble.
[01:46] People from all walks of life can give evidence about what they saw.
[01:51] I'm not religious.
[01:54] I'm a Hindu.
[01:54] I'm a practical, clinical scientist, a humanist, rather than driven by any faith.
[02:00] I'm not trying to manufacture the story or embellish it in any way at all.
[02:05] This is just the facts.
[02:07] Before we start, I want to be really clear.
[02:08] Would you call this a miracle?
[02:10] You can't explain apart from miracle.
[02:12] I can certainly say that that was one miracle.
[02:14] OB this is this is a miracle oh yes I really do believe that is a miracle.
[02:20] My name is Dr Shawn George I work as a consultant physician and head of Department of internal medicine at kully hospital.
[02:28] Dr sha is quite a remarkable human being.
[02:31] He's always maintained some of the the highest Professional Standards.
[02:34] Very knowledgeable.
[02:36] More importantly I think he connects to his patients so that's important.
[02:39] He's part of the community like Australia we live in two different worlds you know the white Fellers over there and we over here but people like Sean had crossed over you know.
[02:48] Sean and me we have a very special relationship.
[02:53] We best friends more than a husband and wife.
[02:56] We've been married for the last 27 years.
[02:59] We have a a son his name is Michael he's 21.
[03:04] So I got that right something I look towards in my dad to Aspire to be is to put God first in my life as he does.
[03:11] My mom is the most.
[03:14] Kind-hearted person I know they're such busy people but they always have time for each other as well.
[03:21] I think the most special thing for us is the morning quiet time that we have together where we read the Bible and spend time praying together before we start the day.
[03:31] And that's wonderful.
[03:34] And Sher you're also a doctor.
[03:37] I work at the emergency department at the hospital in CI.
[03:40] It's actually really good that both of us are doctors because we come across life and death almost on a daily basis.
[03:47] And that's when we can really extend a loving hand to each other and support one another.
[03:54] Dr. George, 16 years ago an event happened to you that would change July forever.
[03:58] Tell me what happened that day.
[04:04] It seemed like a very normal day to me.
[04:06] It was the 24th of October 2008.
[04:10] We normally do about five diabetes clinics a year to esprin which is about.
[04:15] 400 km along the coast and on Friday morning I was returning home and that's when everything happened.
[04:25] We started our journey at about 9:30 in the morning.
[04:28] It was not too long into the journey that I began to experience discomfort in my chest.
[04:34] It was not a pain, but it was just a slight discomfort.
[04:37] And I thought, oh, it must be something that I ate.
[04:39] So I continued to drive.
[04:42] My intern had actually never driven in Australia.
[04:44] I had driven almost 350 km.
[04:47] I began to actually feel a bit of nausea here.
[04:51] So I decided to actually stop the car on the side of the road.
[04:54] That's the first time I was telling my intern that I had discomfort in the chest.
[05:00] Now, an intern is the newly graduated doctor, and that's the first job they're doing as a doctor.
[05:05] So the moment I actually told her that I had discomfort in my chest, she almost became white.
[05:15] Know we're in the middle of nowhere in the outback, there's uh nothing around to help.
[05:21] So I said, could you just check my pulse because that's about the only thing that she could probably do in the middle of nowhere in a situation like this.
[05:29] If you're having a heart attack, sometimes your pulse rate will be very high.
[05:33] So she checked my pulse and it seemed fairly normal.
[05:38] I was not convinced at this stage that it was indigestion.
[05:41] I thought there's something much more sinister.
[05:45] So I decided to get out of the car and I wanted to call my wife Sherry.
[05:48] I had gone to my friend's house to do some study and that's when Sean called.
[05:55] And I told her, look Sherry, I'm having a bit of discomfort in my chest, I'm not feeling that great.
[05:59] We are about 880 km from Kuli and I'm just about to turn into Cala.
[06:05] And I remember asking him, do you have chest pain?
[06:08] And he said, I don't feel too bad but I do have the discomfort, I'm feeling a bit of nausea.
[06:15] So I said, oh do you think you'll be able?
[06:18] To drive up to the hospital and he said,
[06:20] Yeah, I think I can definitely drive.
[06:22] And she said, okay, I'll inform your colleague Dr. Prine Shetty, who is the consultant who works with me.
[06:30] And so she said, I will see you at the hospital.
[06:32] Why don't you come straight there?
[06:34] And that was the plan.
[06:37] I hopped back into the car and I turned into Calab and I started to drive down that road.
[06:43] But while I was traveling on that road, I really felt a deep conviction in my heart that I need to actually get into the clinic at Kelda.
[06:52] Now, Calda is a small mining town and there's a small family practice or general practice in that town.
[07:01] It was about 1:00 in the afternoon.
[07:04] Unfortunately, the doctor had actually gone for lunch.
[07:08] So as I stepped into the clinic, there was the receptionist and the nurse, and I explained to them who I am and could I please have an ECG done.
[07:16] And they said, yep, no problem, come with.
[07:18] Us and they actually did an ECG for me.
[07:22] And they actually handed the ECG over to me.
[07:24] Now that's very unusual because normally as a patient the doctor will read the ECG.
[07:30] But because the doctor was out to lunch, they handed me the ECG because I was both the doctor and the patient.
[07:37] And if you look at this ECG, you will see that in lead 2, lead 3, and avf there's what we called as ST segment elevation.
[07:49] What it really means is that I was having a heart attack in the inferior wall of my heart.
[07:58] Now you can imagine I was looking at my own ECG.
[08:02] I said, oh my God, I'm having a heart attack.
[08:05] You know that might seem really strange, but remember I'm a doctor and I know exactly what that means.
[08:13] At this stage I was getting very anxious, and that's the honest truth, cuz I was not looking at someone else's ECG, I was looking at mine.
[08:20] Basically at that stage, I started to actually have quite a lot of chest pain.
[08:26] And I told the nursing staff, "Can you please call the doctor who was at lunch and ask him to come because I need help?"
[08:33] When he saw me, he said, "Sean, you're only 39 years old; there's no way that you're having a heart attack.
[08:41] Uh, you're probably having indigestion."
[08:43] I know that he was actually trying to calm me down because at that stage I was really getting stressed out, and the pain was getting more and more.
[08:52] So when the doctor actually came, he said, "Let's go to the next room and let me do another ECG for you," and took me to the next room.
[09:00] And it so happened that that was the resuscitation room.
[09:06] I saw that right next to the bed there was the resuscitation trolley, and on top of the trolley was the defibrillator machine.
[09:15] So I lay down on the bed there, experiencing quite a lot of chest pain at this time, and they were actually hooking me up to the...
[09:21] Monitor and they gave me a shot of morphine and still the pain was actually quite severe.
[09:29] I hadn't heard from him for a while so I just thought I'll find out how he's going and I called him and the intern actually picked up the phone and I said can I talk to Sean and she said oh can you call back a little later and I said no I want to speak to him now and I got the call and he said Sher I'm actually in Calda Health Center now.
[09:49] I have actually done an ECG and I'm having a heart attack and I just couldn't believe what I heard.
[09:57] She was obviously quite shocked by that and I said look um they will bring me from the clinic by ambulance I won't be driving anymore.
[10:04] Whatever you do don't try and drive to Calda don't worry about me everything will be fine.
[10:08] So then here I was I didn't know what to do so I just rushed to the hospital to find Dr Shetty to tell him that Sean was going to come because he wasn't well as I was laying down on the.
[10:23] I noticed that my pain was getting worse.
[10:25] I looked at the heart monitor and I noticed that my pulse rate was going up.
[10:31] My blood pressure was actually going up.
[10:33] And I was thinking to myself, that's not good.
[10:36] And that was the last thing that I actually remember seeing.
[10:44] So Dr. George was working for you at the time.
[10:47] How did you get the news?
[10:49] I received a phone call from uh Calda.
[10:52] I was told that um he'd had a cardiac arrest.
[10:56] It was uh quite concerning to me.
[10:59] Obviously I didn't want to lose my friend.
[11:00] Neither did I want to lose my uh um head of medicine.
[11:03] So I went down to the emergency department.
[11:06] Dr. Steve Dunie was working there.
[11:09] He said Shan's had an arrest um and CPR is in progress.
[11:11] Will you go down there?
[11:14] I really argued.
[11:18] Um I had a job to do at the hospital and I just felt like it was a waste of time.
[11:21] I said, I I don't know where camp out is.
[11:22] I said.
[11:25] I don't have a car, he said we can lend you a country Health car.
[11:30] Um, and and someone to drive you, drive with you down there.
[11:34] I think it was quite juus about being any use at all because Kut is about 60k, so it take at least half an hour to get there.
[11:43] I was the most reluctant uh person you've ever seen.
[11:45] I just said this is a waste of time, um, he's either going to survive or he's not, and my presence at his resuscitation is not going to make any difference when I get there in 45 or 50 minutes.
[11:57] Uh, he he'll be dead or alive, and I've got no um ability to impact on the outcome.
[12:02] I think he'll be dead, you know, and he said will you please, as a favor, please just go down.
[12:06] Um, he's the head of medicine, he agreed to go, so I was very pleased about that.
[12:11] So I jumped into a car um with a colleague um Dr ready, and we tled down the road.
[12:18] I did not break the speed limit, um, I didn't think there was any point because you know we're so familiar with this.
[12:25] I knew what the outcome was going to be.
[12:26] To be, I thought I did what I was told by the doctors who were there on the day.
[12:32] Was that I actually had a seizure and that was it.
[12:34] I was in cardiac arrest.
[12:37] So the doctor and my intern immediately, along with the nursing staff, started to do CPR until they could actually connect me to the defibrillator.
[12:49] While my resuscitation was actually happening in Calda, Sherry actually received a phone call.
[12:53] Sher Sean's wife was with me and Ben Anel was one of our good friends of both me and Sean.
[13:00] Dr. Shetty got the call and he was so stunned, I think he didn't know what to say.
[13:06] I got a call saying that we've got Sean Dr. Sha George here and he's had a cardiac arrest.
[13:12] And uh, we have tried to resuscitate him and we haven't been successful so far.
[13:21] I remember him saying what, and he kept saying what.
[13:27] Then he just said, uh, Sher Sean's arrested.
[13:32] Sher got obviously very upset.
[13:34] And then we said, okay, we should drive down.
[13:35] It didn't make any sense to me because I'd spoken to Sean a few minutes ago.
[13:39] I didn't realize that it was that serious.
[13:42] I was shocked to actually find out that this person was my boss, Sha.
[13:49] So that was the shock.
[13:52] And then we got together.
[13:55] I was the driver and we headed off 50 km away to Calo.
[13:59] So when they actually connected me to the defibrillator, they noticed that I was in a shockable rhythm, which was ventricular fibrillation.
[14:06] When a person's got a heart and they initially go into cardiac arrest, the most common rhythm we see is something called ventricular fibrillation.
[14:14] It's chaotic electrical activity.
[14:16] What you need to understand is, when someone's clinically dead, they can still be in ventricular fibrillation.
[14:22] Because ventricular fibrillation means that there is no blood going out of the...
[14:27] Heart to the rest of the body all the heart is actually doing is shaking.
[14:30] It's not pumping.
[14:33] So clinical death is not necessarily always a flatline as you'd see in the movie.
[14:40] It could be ventricular fibrillation.
[14:42] It could be pulseless ventricular tachycardia.
[14:45] Or it could be a flatline.
[14:48] And sometimes there might just be a slight waveform what we call as pulseless electrical activity.
[14:57] All of these scenarios means the person is actually dead.
[15:00] So the whole purpose of a defibrillator is to try and shock the heart so that you can bring the patient back to life and restore the normal rhythm of the heart.
[15:14] Now in the normal protocol of doing advanced life support or CPR, you don't just keep shocking a patient.
[15:19] You deliver a shock and then you do 2 minutes of CPR.
[15:25] The machine analyzes the rhythm and tells you whether a shock should be delivered and you usually.
[15:29] People may give one, two, or even three shocks in the hope that people would come back to life.
[15:36] And sometimes you even give more, and I actually have the actual log of the defibrillator here.
[15:43] And you can see here the first shock was given at 1344.
[15:47] Then you see the second shock at 1346, and in between this time they were actually doing 2 minutes of CPR.
[15:56] The brain has a requirement for a lot of oxygen, a lot of glucose.
[15:59] And because when you're getting CPR, you're not getting the right amount of blood flowing through, cells start to die.
[16:08] As cells die, the chance of recovery goes down, and the chance of recovery with a significant neurologic impediment starts to go up.
[16:21] If a person is clinically dead, all it takes is 4 minutes for the brain to actually begin to die, and by about 20 minutes it is.
[16:30] Irreversibly dead as quickly as you can get the heart to start again the better.
[16:37] As a paramedic, what did you see when you arrived on the scene?
[16:43] Uh, when we arrived, Dr. George was obviously on the table.
[16:45] He had a few rounds of defibrillation to try and shock his heart back.
[16:50] Generally, people when they come around, they generally come around after a few shocks.
[16:55] That's when you normally get the good outcome.
[16:56] And then the third shock, the fourth shock just wasn't wanting to get back into that normal rhythm.
[17:06] It's just frustrating, you just come on, come on, and it doesn't end there.
[17:10] The fifth, the sixth, I remember being in the car and hearing the whole conversation between the intern and Dr. Shetty.
[17:20] And Dr. Shetty was trying to guide her through the whole thing.
[17:26] The seven, it was like no, this is this person, no, no, not going to make it.
[17:29] The doctors kept.
[17:30] Calling saying that we have tried we have tried.
[17:32] I said keep trying, keep trying.
[17:34] We on our way 8 9 I was driving wondering how fast do I drive?
[17:37] What are we getting there for?
[17:39] What's going to happen when we arrive there?
[17:41] 10 the time's just going on and I can hear Dr. Shetty saying, oh so that many shocks are over and there's no response.
[17:46] 11 12 in my mind I was thinking, oh my God, what am I going to do?
[17:53] 13 shocks were given over a period of 48 minutes.
[18:00] But after 48 minutes when the machine actually analyzed the rhythm, it did not actually recommend a shock because from the state of ventricular fibrillation I progressed into a flat line.
[18:12] He was on the flat line.
[18:19] This is you're not going to survive this.
[18:23] We call that flatline in medical terms asy asly means there was not a scar of activity.
[18:31] His heart wasn't moving.
[18:33] It was just a dead heart.
[18:36] I'm a doctor, I know there's nothing left.
[18:39] You know, time's going on.
[18:41] It's more than half an hour, and by the time we get to Cambala, it'll be at least an hour before we reach there.
[18:50] And Sean's been dead for 1 hour, and nothing's going to happen.
[18:53] The biggest thing in my mind is how am I going to tell my child that he's lost his father?
[19:01] Sherry was really distraught.
[19:03] I had almost nothing to reassure her with.
[19:07] Things all looked bad.
[19:10] I felt like I was all by myself because I didn't know what to do at that stage.
[19:18] When Dr. Steve DJI arrived in Calda, the resuscitation had already gone on for well over an hour.
[19:23] The entrance was into a crowded room where there were two paramedics taking turns to do CPR.
[19:28] Uh, an enti lifeless body.
[19:31] Um, a monitor that showed a flatline trace, which means...
[19:33] There's just no electrical activity in the heart.
[19:35] It was like a saying from a movie.
[19:37] There was a huge amount of tension and a and a corpse.
[19:41] You received a call from your dad that changed everything.
[19:46] I vividly remember the day while doing the shopping when SMS came.
[19:50] It was from Sheri.
[19:53] The message was please call back immediately.
[19:59] So I was already in the car going to Cambala when he called and I said that Sean had arrested first.
[20:03] When she said Shan is arrested, I thought his police has arrested him.
[20:07] Then suddenly I thought probably he might have overspeeded or some rash driving police has arrested him.
[20:11] So I told her go and get a lawyer and get a bail for him.
[20:17] And he asked what do you mean Sean's arrested?
[20:19] Did the police arrest him?
[20:21] And I thought to myself what are you saying?
[20:24] And I'm here I'm trying to you know it's a serious matter but my dad.
[20:35] thought that it was the police then she
[20:38] told me no dad it is cardiac
[20:43] arrest I'm going to get his body from
[20:45] the hospital even today I can hear my
[20:49] dad cry he was it was such a loud cry
[20:51] and he said no that can't happen that
[20:54] can't happen I was crying myself and I
[20:58] was trying trying to hold myself all
[21:00] together because I was in the car with
[21:02] other people and sher's next to me on
[21:04] the phone to her father saying here's
[21:08] what's happened he's too young to
[21:14] die what what will I do what should I do
[21:18] that was a shocking
[21:19] moment so just imagine a daughter asking
[21:23] her
[21:24] father what should she do when he she's
[21:27] going to collect
[21:29] her husband's body it was a real shock
[21:32] to me I didn't know what how to
[21:34] answer so I pray to God what answer
[21:38] should I
[21:39] give I was crying and I told her you
[21:43] don't worry God is in control of all
[21:46] situations you go and pray I want you to
[21:49] go there and pray and I thought to
[21:53] myself you can't understand I'm telling
[21:56] you he's dead I'm going to collect a
[21:58] dead body but then I thought to
[22:01] myself oh after all he's a godly man and
[22:05] he has said to go and pray so there's no
[22:09] harm you know it's I didn't have faith
[22:12] but I thought in my mind oh okay that's
[22:15] a good thought no harm in praying and to
[22:17] see what will happen God gave me the
[22:19] courage to tell that to her and I really
[22:23] thank God that He gave me that advice I
[22:26] don't know deep down whether I would
[22:29] have done it myself I didn't have the
[22:31] faith to believe that God would do it
[22:35] for me I know God can but would I have
[22:37] done it on my own I don't know whether I
[22:40] would have Professor dunie it's been
[22:42] over an hour nothing is working what do
[22:46] you do I announced the room that Shan
[22:49] was dead and I said we're going to make
[22:50] a last couple of attempts this is it
[22:52] after this everyone agrees all the
[22:54] doctors there everyone sort of yeah look
[22:56] there's not more we can do about this if
[22:58] you've ever being in a resuscitation
[22:59] situation you have to discuss that with
[23:02] everybody who is there and my intern she
[23:05] was really really upset now she knew
[23:08] that Sher was actually on her way to the
[23:10] clinic at calda one of the junior
[23:12] doctors said his wife's coming can we
[23:15] hang on till she gets here I was
[23:16] actually a bit reluctant um you know I
[23:18] didn't think there was any point in
[23:20] continuing things they decided that they
[23:22] would try another two cycles of CPR then
[23:26] they would actually completely stop
[23:28] resuscitation at this stage um Dr
[23:31] George's wife appeared when we reached
[23:34] calda I was in such a bad stage I felt
[23:37] that I had no strength to even get out
[23:39] of the car when Sher actually walked
[23:42] into the clinic the doctors were
[23:45] standing back except the Doctor Who was
[23:47] giving me some oxygen uh everybody else
[23:50] stood back and the cardiac monitor was
[23:52] just a flat line she's a doctor as well
[23:57] and obviously she could with a
[23:58] profession she understands the
[24:00] ramifications of what's in front of her
[24:03] and I walked into the clinic and I saw
[24:06] Sean lying there he was white seeing
[24:10] that body was very very
[24:15] hard Sherry arrived spoke to
[24:18] Sherry he held my hand and he said
[24:21] Sherry I'm sorry but Sean's gone you can
[24:24] say go and Say Goodbye remember I was
[24:27] dead for an hour hour and 20 odd minutes
[24:30] by this time so my body was actually
[24:33] cold I remember going and holding his
[24:36] hand and it was so cold and I I
[24:43] thought I have lost my best
[24:48] friend while she was there holding my
[24:50] hand she remembered what her father told
[24:53] her in the car I remembered what my dad
[24:56] said just go and pray
[25:01] Sherry not by the B and pride she was te
[25:05] and she was saying her prayers so I
[25:09] just held his hand and I said God he's
[25:13] only
[25:14] 39 I'm 38 we have a 10-year-old boy I
[25:19] need a
[25:21] miracle I heard a
[25:23] gasp but almost simultaneous with that
[25:26] was this extra added sound
[25:33] and then the next thing I know there was
[25:35] so much of confusion so much of noise
[25:38] and I thought to myself I'm just
[25:41] imagining because that's what I would
[25:43] love to happen to
[25:45] me and then everybody became very
[25:48] excited and you know we started
[25:49] continuing the CPR I opened my eyes and
[25:52] then everybody was like moom mo mo she
[25:55] was asked to move aside and initially
[25:57] she was confused was she hearing this in
[25:59] her mind or did my heartbeat actually
[26:02] come back and when I heard all that
[26:04] noise and all that commotion then I I
[26:06] looked up at the Monitor and then I
[26:08] realized that Sean's heartbeat had come
[26:11] back and when I
[26:13] heard the monitor with the beep I just
[26:17] thought oh
[26:19] that's something very special it's hard
[26:23] puppet I said wo that's amazing it was
[26:26] an amazing feeling to see the pulse
[26:27] coming back back to see the monitor
[26:29] showing his pulse back so it's so hard
[26:32] to describe I turned around and he was
[26:35] his heart was beating very irregularly
[26:37] in a rhythm we call age refibrillation
[26:39] obviously now they couldn't send me to
[26:41] the MOG and so they started to actually
[26:43] work on me again he began to have pink
[26:45] froth boil up the tube and I started
[26:47] giving really enormous doses of
[26:49] adrenaline to keep his heart going and
[26:53] were you hopeful at that stage to be
[26:55] honest with you um for doctors in my
[26:58] position position often that's just a
[26:59] problem you know the the heartbeat's
[27:01] back you've got temporarily some kind of
[27:04] activity but you pretty much know the
[27:07] writing's on the wall it's not going to
[27:08] go anywhere I said to Sherry uh we need
[27:10] to get it back to to to cgy uh he's
[27:14] probably going to die they decided that
[27:16] they should transport me from calda
[27:18] Clinic to culi hospital the commotion
[27:21] was about let's get things going
[27:24] transport uh organize a police escort
[27:28] get cold fluid and cold packs on him
[27:32] let's cool him down we jumped into the
[27:34] ambulance we trundled up the road back
[27:35] to cowly me in the back seat constantly
[27:38] bising large ballis of adrenaline pink
[27:40] froth boiling out his tube me Dr Shetty
[27:43] and Dr anel left in the cars and Sean
[27:48] came by ambulance and even on the way
[27:51] back I was talking to Dr Shetty and I
[27:54] was saying I really don't know what's
[27:56] going to happen ahead
[28:01] when I finally arrived at Kuli Hospital
[28:03] from kambalda almost like a dead body I
[28:06] was told that a lot of my friends
[28:09] colleagues nursing staff they all came
[28:12] down to the emergency department and
[28:14] actually said goodbye to me everyone who
[28:16] was anyone in the health department in
[28:19] the go Fields was in the emergency
[28:21] department that afternoon they wanted to
[28:23] be there as Sha was taken out to sort of
[28:26] pay their respects so they've wheeled
[28:28] him out I see them like push that in on
[28:31] the stretcher and he just had a lot of
[28:33] machines like hooked up to him and it
[28:34] was just pretty scary because at that
[28:36] age I didn't really understand what this
[28:38] all meant and it's almost like a guard
[28:41] of honor of all these people lined up
[28:44] along the sides of the corridor as Sha's
[28:47] slowly brought through I had seen that
[28:50] once before in my work where there was
[28:52] an underground explosion and it struck
[28:54] me that that's sort of what was
[28:56] happening here they were saying goodbye
[28:59] well I suppose we all were cuz nobody
[29:01] expected him to live nobody expected him
[29:03] to survive or recover Michael is
[29:06] somebody who loves Legos and I remember
[29:09] him telling me in my simplistic
[29:12] understanding of things I just said to
[29:14] Mom I was like Mom don't worry God's
[29:16] going to put the pieces together you
[29:17] know he can fix anything um and so yeah
[29:20] that's that was my belief at the
[29:23] time at that stage he was alive but
[29:26] really sick his heart was struggling now
[29:28] culi is a regional hospital ultimately I
[29:31] would have had to be shipped to the big
[29:34] hospital in Perth but something really
[29:37] strange happened there was a massive
[29:40] hail storm because of this hail storm
[29:43] they could not fly me to Perth it was
[29:46] going to be some time before the rfds
[29:48] could take him to Perth because culi is
[29:50] a regional hospital we can't actually
[29:52] look at the arteries supplying the heart
[29:54] put in a stent if it's required the best
[29:57] that we can do who is a clock busting
[29:59] drug I remember Dr duni coming back and
[30:02] asking I said you sh I'm going to give
[30:03] him some thrumble eyes I said I'll
[30:05] probably kill him this is a a
[30:06] clot-busting drug figured that that was
[30:08] the best thing I could do in the
[30:09] circumstance but there's pretty good
[30:11] evidence that if you use trombolisis in
[30:13] this circumstance it's bur robust and I
[30:16] remember telling him you know God has
[30:19] done a miracle I believe Sean will live
[30:21] let just go ahead and do it and she was
[30:23] confident that you know something
[30:25] amazing was going to happen and I felt
[30:28] like it was my job to kind of um to
[30:30] dampen her enthusiasm cuz I was
[30:32] confident it wasn't going to be a good
[30:34] outcome and when you gave him the clock
[30:35] busting drug what was the outcome he got
[30:38] a fabulous strong heartbeat back big
[30:41] lines put in you know a central line an
[30:44] arterial line basically took him out to
[30:46] the uh the airport and FLW him down to
[30:47] Perth and I was completely confident
[30:49] when he got in the plane he wasn't going
[30:51] to survive for patients who have been
[30:55] arrested for a really long period of
[30:57] time time the other organs in their body
[31:00] don't work anymore very often their gut
[31:02] is dead they have a brain that is
[31:03] swelling every hour getting more and
[31:05] more swollen crushing itself these guys
[31:08] tend to die in less than 24
[31:12] hours finally we got to the hospital and
[31:15] Sean was taken to the cat lab they did
[31:17] an angiogram and they actually found
[31:20] that I had a block in my right coronary
[31:23] artery and they put in a piece of
[31:25] Plumbing we call it a stent and finally
[31:27] it was in the the early hours of
[31:29] Saturday morning that I was moved to the
[31:32] ICU at Royal Perth Hospital most likely
[31:35] medically speaking I was brain dead and
[31:39] what evidence was there that you're most
[31:41] likely brain dead this is a picture
[31:44] showing my kidney functions I'm a kidney
[31:46] doctor I see people with kidney problems
[31:48] and his kidneys had shut down completely
[31:51] because the blood supply to all my
[31:53] organs was cut off for such a long time
[31:57] I actually developed kidney failure any
[32:00] insult that's bad enough to shut down
[32:01] your kidneys is almost certainly going
[32:03] to shut down your brain as well the
[32:05] liver also got damaged you can see his
[32:07] oxygen concentration was low enough to
[32:09] cause significant damage to his his
[32:11] liver and his kidneys they're very
[32:13] durable organs they do a lot better than
[32:16] people's brains do a person's brain
[32:18] starts to die really fast you don't need
[32:20] to be a doctor to know how bad this
[32:22] actually looks and if you look at this
[32:25] machine here this is the machine that
[32:27] was actually doing the breathing for me
[32:30] because just remember I am supposed to
[32:31] be brain dead my kidneys had failed my
[32:34] liver had failed I should have had no
[32:37] brain function I see that his liver is
[32:40] not working his kidney is not working
[32:43] remember being both a doctor and the
[32:46] wife was a very difficult balance at
[32:49] that time the doctor mind in me says oh
[32:52] his brain should be affected too every
[32:55] day I'd come and see him and talk to his
[32:58] wife but in my heart I just thought this
[33:01] is an awful tragedy there is a man who
[33:04] has got an irreversible brain injury uh
[33:06] after a very prolonged hour and hour and
[33:09] 20 minutes resuscitation medically
[33:11] speaking this is horrible because his
[33:15] brain should be 100% dead I thought to
[33:18] myself I hope I I don't have to make the
[33:21] choice one day of having to say let's
[33:24] turn off the ventilator because he going
[33:26] to be a vegetable and how am I going to
[33:29] deal with that situation was going
[33:31] through my
[33:33] [Music]
[33:38] mind there I was in Perth all by myself
[33:41] didn't know anyone and as I was going
[33:44] with Sean I saw Dr Christine and Jeffree
[33:47] Stokes waiting there because they had
[33:49] heard what had happened and it was so
[33:51] nice to see somebody that I
[33:54] knew in the Bible talks about raising
[33:57] the Dead you
[33:59] know and I'm I'm expecting you know
[34:03] Jeffrey actually anointed Sean's head
[34:06] with oil and prayed uses oil whatever
[34:09] oil is around sometimes it's butter or
[34:11] margarine out of the fridge or olive oil
[34:14] whatever oil doesn't matter um and he
[34:17] will
[34:18] pray and then he'll touch them on
[34:21] usually on their forehead you were
[34:23] saying
[34:24] like it's done just laid hands and just
[34:28] just belied that everyone in our church
[34:31] knew about it everyone was praying the
[34:32] other churches in Cal they knew about
[34:35] this Christian doctor too but it was
[34:36] more than that sha and Sher and Michael
[34:39] they they're very well known very well
[34:41] respected people all over the world and
[34:44] there was people praying and calling out
[34:46] to God all over the
[34:48] [Music]
[34:50] world the other reason I wanted you to
[34:53] look at this picture is this is what
[34:56] Sher was actually looking at
[34:58] on Sunday morning the 26th of October
[35:01] 2008 when she actually got a phone call
[35:04] I got a call from my aunt in India to
[35:07] tell me that a lady had been praying and
[35:10] she had said that that night before I
[35:13] went to bed that sea would open his eyes
[35:15] on this particular day before Sher goes
[35:18] to sleep I would open my eyes now you
[35:23] tell me if you were actually looking at
[35:25] this picture would you believe that I
[35:27] thought to
[35:28] myself my aunt is not MediCal she has no
[35:32] clue you know Sean's so
[35:35] sick but I just believed the message
[35:39] that she told me and I thought okay
[35:43] tonight before I go to sleep if Sean
[35:46] will open his eyes that would be great
[35:48] on that evening one of my colleagues Dr
[35:52] Christine Jeffrey Stokes she came to
[35:55] visit Dr Christine was there and
[35:57] Christin was actually talking to Sean
[35:59] our normal practice with children who
[36:01] are in that situation and I'm a
[36:02] pediatrician is to talk to them about
[36:06] normal things and so I started talking
[36:08] to him um about just normal stuff what
[36:11] the weather was like what we were doing
[36:14] how we were there and she then noticed
[36:17] that there was some flicker in my eyes
[36:19] and she actually asked me Sean are you
[36:24] there and his eyelids flooded again and
[36:27] and I said Sean Sean if you're there
[36:29] squeeze my hand and apparently I
[36:31] squeezed her hand and then she actually
[36:34] shouted loud if you can hear me open
[36:37] your open your
[36:38] eyes and in a moment he just opened his
[36:42] eyes for like just like a few seconds
[36:45] and I saw that and then I remembered
[36:47] what that lady had said that before I
[36:49] sleep on Sunday Sean would open his eyes
[36:52] and that had happened I think we cried
[36:54] we both cried yeah it was exciting and
[36:57] almost unbelievable you know the next
[36:59] day I started to actually move my hands
[37:02] and my legs which means that I actually
[37:04] had brain function on Monday they
[37:06] started to wean him off and by Wednesday
[37:09] they were actually able to take the tube
[37:12] out of my throat and I began to breathe
[37:14] on my own which means that my brain was
[37:18] functioning but it's what happened next
[37:21] that shocked
[37:24] everyone I've rarely been as shocked um
[37:27] it was yeah do you want me to finish the
[37:30] rest of the story yeah so I rang up ICU
[37:33] and I spoke to a friend of mine and said
[37:35] I'm just calling about sha how's he
[37:37] going and he said well it's pretty sick
[37:40] um and the fact that his there was such
[37:42] tremendous Damage Done to his liver and
[37:44] kidneys led to my next question which
[37:46] was what's his brain like and he said
[37:47] it's pretty good I said how do you know
[37:49] he said well we've just extubated him I
[37:52] said really cuzz I I was so certain he
[37:55] they were going to pull a plug um and
[37:58] they said yeah he said did you want to
[37:59] hear what his first words were and I
[38:01] said
[38:02] yeah the absolutely amazing thing and
[38:06] I've never seen this before in my life
[38:08] eyes
[38:10] open I opened my eyes I looked around
[38:13] and then indicated that he was ready to
[38:15] be extrated and as the tube came out
[38:18] made perfect sense and I said what am I
[38:22] doing here and in fact when the nurse
[38:24] came I said oh can I have a look at my
[38:26] ECG my ABG and she nearly collapsed
[38:30] apparently when the tube came out his
[38:31] first words were what do my arterial
[38:33] blood gases look like um which was just
[38:37] extraordinary that's such a Shan thing
[38:39] you know so medical somebody told me the
[38:42] first thing he said when this tube was
[38:44] out was show me my
[38:46] charts and I thought yes that's
[38:48] Sean he'd want to be in charge of that
[38:51] my brain was 100%
[38:55] normal which is just medically
[38:58] impossible it was amazing just to see
[39:01] that from Friday to somebody who was
[39:04] dead to Wednesday somebody who was
[39:06] talking like nothing happened again I
[39:09] just wanted to pinch myself and see was
[39:11] it real I I I couldn't believe it to
[39:15] hear that they' extubated him and the
[39:18] story just kept on getting better you've
[39:20] extubated him and he's talking and his
[39:22] brain's normal it was just wow wow wow I
[39:26] got a call from Sean hey PR how are you
[39:28] he
[39:29] said and I was just shocked the fact
[39:31] that he was conscious well that was
[39:35] reasonably remarkable but the fact that
[39:37] he was talking and making sense oh yeah
[39:40] now that's a miracle and the fact that
[39:42] his personality was there oh yes I
[39:45] really do believe that is a miracle we
[39:48] couldn't believe it absolutely couldn't
[39:50] believe it I went up to see him and he
[39:52] was as sharp as he ever
[39:56] was back from the dead praise the
[39:59] Lord Sean was discharged on the 13th day
[40:02] and I didn't think we would come home so
[40:04] quickly and people who actually came to
[40:06] visit me they asked the doctor so
[40:09] where's Dr George and they said Miracle
[40:13] Man has left the hospital in two to 3
[40:15] weeks he was doing things on his own it
[40:17] was just amazing to make not just a good
[40:20] recovery but an instantaneous full
[40:22] recovery was you know quite jawdropping
[40:24] in less than 2 months he was back to
[40:26] work if you 2 weeks later after rehab
[40:28] everything he walked into the hospital
[40:30] back in Kuli the fact that he went back
[40:32] and did his full duties as the head of a
[40:36] medical Department of a large base
[40:38] hospital now that is a
[40:41] miracle I have never heard of that
[40:43] happening before it's unprecedented and
[40:46] I've told this story International
[40:47] meetings in Japan and other places
[40:49] overseas complete with rhythm strips and
[40:51] the room goes quiet because no one's
[40:53] ever heard a story or anything like it
[40:54] it's amazing I'm very happy to say that
[40:56] this was and extraordinary and he he
[40:59] likes the word miracle and and I like
[41:01] the word miracle cuz it fits so nicely
[41:03] with his his intrinsic faith and I can
[41:05] certainly say that that was one Miracle
[41:07] I've seen Medical Science can't explain
[41:09] apart from Miracle yeah this is this is
[41:10] a miracle one of the most extraordinary
[41:12] things about this story is that you are
[41:14] a doctor who is completely familiar in
[41:16] fact a leader in your field when it
[41:18] comes to these phenomena one of the
[41:20] biggest advantages of this actually
[41:22] having happened to a doctor I had that
[41:25] unique advantage of being able to
[41:27] understand and what actually happened
[41:28] piece the story together collect the
[41:31] evidence put that evidence out there so
[41:33] that people can see it for themselves
[41:36] even though it's 11 years down the track
[41:37] every time I think about it I get quite
[41:40] emotional because God answered my prayer
[41:44] even though I didn't have the faith and
[41:47] he is God the thing I remember is that
[41:50] there was a an overwhelming sense of
[41:52] Peis from every single person involved
[41:54] except for Sherry um share great faith
[41:58] it's very different when it happens to
[42:00] you and you know that God answered your
[42:04] prayer gives me great faith it's not
[42:06] that I'm anybody special but God really
[42:10] heard my cry and I think he blessed me
[42:14] that's I feel really privileged because
[42:17] he answered my prayer what's your
[42:20] message I really hope that people will
[42:22] think about their life very seriously
[42:25] you have one life at most people have
[42:27] One Life to Live um I was given another
[42:31] chance but my encouragement to you would
[42:33] be please consider what you're doing
[42:36] with your life the most important
[42:38] decision that you can ever make is about
[42:42] where you will spend
[42:44] eternity can I humbly request choose
[42:48] life choose life with
[42:51] God I think that's the message I'd like
[42:54] to
[42:55] say and I think for me the most
[42:58] important thing is okay I've experienced
[43:01] miracle and everybody thinks oh life's
[43:03] beautiful after that but life is hard
[43:08] and you know there are difficult moments
[43:11] in life but we have as a family chosen
[43:15] to live for God and and that's my desire
[43:18] for everyone to know God and to follow
[43:21] him because there is an eternity and we
[43:23] want you all to be in heaven with God uh
[43:26] father father I just want to pray um
[43:30] that those who are actually listening to
[43:33] my story and the second life that you've
[43:36] given
[43:38] me that it
[43:40] would result in them having a second
[43:44] chance in their life and that they will
[43:46] spend eternity with
[43:49] you amen amen
[43:59] [Music]
[44:57] am