The unbelievable story of a miraculous double resuscitation
Michael Thom, a 53-year-old passionate recreational soccer player, occasionally met up with his friends on a small soccer field in the Mellinghof tennis facility, as was the case on August 8, 2019. In the middle of the game, he felt sick, staggered, collapsed unconscious, and stopped breathing. His friend Rafael reacted quickly and immediately began resuscitation measures. Rudi sprinted to the victim from the neighboring boules court. Rudi has experience in first aid due to his training with the DLRG. In an unprecedented collaboration with the other sports friends, the rescue operation continued, a defibrillator installed on the tennis facility was quickly fetched, and after just one shock, Michael Thom was able to regain a normal heart rhythm. When the emergency doctor arrived, his circulation was already stable again. A heart attack was diagnosed in the clinic and coronary stents were inserted.
Michael Thom went to rehab, was given medication and was regularly monitored by a doctor, after which he was certified as having good heart function and was given permission to do moderate exercise again. That was the first part of the story, which experienced an almost unbelievable repeat about two years later.
On July 29, 2021, two years after the first incident, the soccer field team had arranged to meet again for a game. Michael Thom was playing, and then the unthinkable happened: He collapsed unconscious again and stopped breathing. Fatefully, the two friends who had resuscitated him two years ago happened to be on the soccer field and boules court again and saved Michael Thom's life for the second time with exactly the same defibrillator that was used back then. Once again, a single shock was enough to bring the heart into a stable rhythm. Michael Thom survived this second incident without any subsequent damage. He has since had a permanent defibrillator implanted to protect him from further cardiac events.
Sometimes life has some wonderful surprises. The duplicity of events is hard to imagine, such that a person was saved from cardiac arrest twice by exactly the same two first responders, in exactly the same place and with exactly the same defibrillator. In this respect, Michael Thom is incredibly grateful to all first responders. He also had a particularly attentive guardian angel and can now celebrate his birthday three times a year.
