DEERFIELD BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A retired Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who suffered a massive heart attack reunited with the paramedics who saved his life in a special ceremony.
Patrick Hanrahan shook the hands of the first responders who saved his life, Monday. Hanrahan suffered a massive heart attack in his sleep back in January.
He then woke up in the hospital two months later.
“I really have no memory of this happening to me and probably until the last couple weeks of the hospital stay. I finally remember people,” Hanrahan said.
The paramedics performed CPR on Hamrahan until he got to the hospital where doctors put him into a medically-induced coma and chilled his body to 32 degrees to save his brain. Then, they slowly warmed him over the course of two days in a life-saving procedure.
“When your surgeon says, ‘It’s a miracle you’re walking,’ you can’t believe it,” Hamrahan said.
Hamrahan said the event was a chance to say thank you to the paramedics who saved him. “Thank God, I mean they saved my life. What more can you do? I’m here,” he said.
“He is now going to be able to continue in his retirement and being able to spend time with his family is an awesome feeling,” said Lt. David Blue of Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue.
Experts said it’s extremely rare to survive full cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting, thus making Hamrahan’s survival that much more amazing.
An additional group of paramedics was honored in the ceremony for saving a woman who was stuck under a train in Pompano Beach in December.
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