NYC Teen's Heart Makes Miracle Comeback

Boy's Heart Starts Beating Days After It Stopped Following A Gym Class Collapse

(CBS/AP)  Daniel Walker was on his final lap jogging in his high school gym class when he collapsed, his flawed heart giving out on him.

Days later, his heart at a standstill, kept alive by a bypass machine, it began beating again. The 17-year-old's parents called it divine intervention. His physicians were no less amazed.

"I've been a surgeon for 10 years, and this is probably one of the most incredible things I've ever seen," said Dr. Abeel Mangi, one of Walker's cardiac surgeons at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Walker's father described his son's recovery in spiritual terms. "God turned around, put His hand on my son, and recharged him," said William Walker, 58, a retired sanitation worker.

His son's ordeal began Jan. 19 when he collapsed in gym class. The younger Walker suffered from a rare congenital heart flaw that left his coronary artery pinched, giving him only 10 percent of normal heart capacity. He was shuttled to two hospitals before finding himself at Columbia, waiting for a heart transplant, attached to the bypass machine.

"I was on my final lap, and I felt real woozy. I knew I was messed up," the teen told the New York Daily News. "I'm glad those guys were there," he said of his doctors.

Walker's cardiac surgeons said they could not account for the young man's recovery.

"It's a miracle," Mangi said. "There's really no other way to put it."

Two days after it began to beat on its own, surgeons were able to fix the flaw in Walker's heart, increasing its capacity to 60 percent.

Mangi, along with Dr. Rachel Bijou, helped save Walker with CPR and electric shocks from a — making him the first person with that particular heart condition to be successfully revived. "He had no pulse at all," Mangi told the Daily News. "It was just like on TV. We didn't give up. We were able to get him back."

[random_radar]

Yay! Something good in the world. I like reading these stories.

[tvgenius]

I'm just shocked nobody's made a political comment yet blaming the other side for his heart stopping.

[suiteo1]

What a great Valentines Day story!

[mhuntm]

Act of G-d? ... maybe. Or maybe there was a medical explanation not determined. Just because something is inexplicable by his Dr. does not mean it's devine intervention. It would be nice to think the hand of G-d but there could be other ways the body works which are not well understood.

[gwagener]

If your god can pull off highly improbable rescues like this yet stands idle for all the suffering in the world, then your god is 95% evil and 5% good (probably less).

[nothappyatall]

Oh bullkrap stinkingrick, he revived because he had immediate medical care by those who knew what they were doing- the moment he collapsed. A teen's body is very resilient and can take all kinds of abuse like drowning and freezing longer than an older adult.
praise god? *** him! if it wasn't for him the kid never would have collapsed in the FIRST place! you biBULL thumping morons are always ready to jump in with this praise god chit, shove god up your arse along with my foot!

[gwagener]

On the other hand, perhaps god was trying to kill this kid since birth, giving him a defective heart. God's attempts weren't working out, so he decided to give up and the kid recovers.

[nothappyatall]

I read it stinkingrick, and the doctor must be a delusional biBULL thumper like you are.

He was kept alive by a heart-lung machine.

[susanhelit]

This is a wonderful thing - I'm very happy for the boy and his family. Just one more reminder that we don't know everything about the body, and sometimes, if you give it some time, and keep trying, keep supporting him with all our medical technology (without which he'd have been dead days ago) - good things can happen.


But to the obnoxiously repetitive singinrick: If the highly improbable good stuff that happens is a miracle, so is the bad stuff - the guy who gets a little tiny stab wound while trying to help someone - that just happens to nick his spinal cord and paralyze him - that's a miracle. The person who has a little tiny defect in one blood vessel deep in his brain that improbably becomes an anyurism, bursts, and kills him at 21 - that's a miracle.

[rochest]

a scientific explanation or a religious miracle who cares it happened that is good for this family does this mean the others on one not so fortunate have no faith and therefore do not get their prayers answered?

[susanhelit]

Doctors have a very difficult job - they sit there and see their patients die or become horribly handicapped, they see someone come in alert and talking and interesing, then die. And they see people come in basicly dead, and manage to come back - and sometimes it's the lousy stinkin murderer who gets the miracle, and the loving mother of three who dies. Lots of different defense mechanisms they use to avoid going completely insane, but it comes down to a level of detachment - they have to believe that it's not all their fault - neither the good nor the bad.

[susanhelit]

The human body is an incredible thing - as is medical science. It took the ultimate in both of their performance to save this little boy.

[gwagener]

Do the right thing because it's good.
Don't do the wrong thing because it's evil.
Don't do right or avoid wrong because you think some supernatural being will reward or punish you - that's just selfishness.
It is of no relavance if there are any supernatural beings (gods, angels, spirits, avitars, pixies, or smurfs).

[susanhelit]

Three posts in a row, unprompted by any 'negative' post, then many more is 'not pushing'? Suuuuure. You just wanted to fill another board. It's a wonderful thing, and you hijack it to push your agenda.

[passerby2]

there you go again singingrick, always so ready to believe others. what makes that surgeon and the father such experts on god, that if they say it's god's doing then it must be god. you're so easily duped.

[gwagener]

singinrick,
Of course there is a right and a wrong. I just said do one and not the other. You lack a point.

[passerby2]

have you ever seen the documentary on the history channel about the 'Peoples Temple' singing rick? About Jonestown? i just can't stand it when people don't think for themselves.

[passerby2]

yeah those people had faith, blind faith in this guy who was obviously mentally unstable, but yet they followed him and ended killing themselves and hundreds of innocent children, it's sick man.

[gwagener]

singinrick wrote:
Geeesh!!

Now you've gone and done it! You used the Lord's name in vain, like he didn't know you meant "Jesus!!". Now you have to go to Hell. Sorry, it's your rules ;o)

[passerby2]

your missing the point singinrcik, it's blind faith that killed them. that guy could just as easily be claiming gods words and do the same to you.

[abcdefgh2001]

he lived didn`t he?

[susanhelit]

Somehow, singinrick, I think you'd take it differently if there was a Muslim poster praising Allah for saving the boy, quoting the Koran over and over and over again. You might then see how obnoxious attempt to push your faith are. One post - not pushing faith, just praising. Several in a row - the agenda is obvious.

[susanhelit]

The boy lived - it took everything medical science had to offer (he could have died several times over without it), and a wonderful bit of luck that his heart managed to start to beat again, which let the doctors restore it to 60% power. He'll still have to be quite careful, but he's alive, and that's quite something.

[susanhelit]

You can believe what you like. It's when you are pushing your belief at others, harassing us with post after post (3 posts in a row, unanswered, the same thing over and over again - and you want to claim we started it when we answered your posts) - sorry, but the church I was brought up in, that is not at all good Christian behavior!

You inspire people by your love and compassion, you make them want to be like you, want to know why you are so happy and nice. You don't push your faith, you don't hide it, but you don't PUSH. Posting once how wonderful it is that there was this miracle - that's just great. Posting 3 times in a row, and your behavior here and on every other thread you get involved in - you push, and are rude, and make Christians look HORRIBLE, if you were an example.

[cantshutup]

singinrick...I hope you won't continue to strive to be the center of attention...it's just uncomely...and boring...

[childofgod28]

Wow! Is everyone on this board an adult or what? The only mature person I see on this board is Singinrick... The man puts God Rocks! And writes how excited he is about the Miracle that happened, and you guys stomp all over him? You cuss you say hateful things, you say he is pushing his faith on you? What kind of people are you? I bet if this artical was about a muslim, who believed in Allah, and said how Allah rocks, and talked about the article, not one of you would have said a thing. But because this country is so against God for some reason (the devil) you all say hateful things to him. Another reason you would allow a muslim to say things on here, because for some odd reason none of you feel threatened by them, but you do by Christians... Just because a hypocritical Christian, or church upset you, you are all against Christians... So that is why you are being mean and immature to singinrick... Go ahead and cuss your heads off at me too. Because guess what... God Rocks! I love HIM with all my heart and soul... God Bless all of your lost souls, and you are all in my prayers... Well I have a life unlike some of you on this board and I have to work... God Bless!!!! Oh and Singinrick, keep on what your doing! All of us Christians are proud of a fellow brother in Christ like you... Keep up the good work, and keep your chin up... Love in Christ!!!

[gwagener]

childofGod28,
Jesus demands that you be as a child, ergo, you are the child and we are adults.

[passerby2]

childofGod, what makes you think that anyone who is not muslim, accept "allah" just because they do not accept "God". We don't believe in mystical creatures period.

[passerby2]

it's obvious that you, singinrick and childofGod, are not as secure about your beliefs as you say you are, because you are getting all worked up by every little comment against god. it's not uncommon for people who believe in god to be insecure about themselves because it's difficult for them to stand on their own two feet without the support of god. but i think you're getting to the point of confusion because you see things that contradict god in everyday life and you start to doubt yourself. Then when you hear someone question your belief you immediately defend god because you don't want to see your support crumble piece by piece. If you had true faith you wouldn't be bothered by what we say, and just focus on getting into "heaven" and let "god" deal with us non believer. But i think you want to make your belief system common and widespread so that you can feel accept and validated.

[passerby2]

the psyche of those who invented god and allah are so childish, i bet you they were the kids who were picked last or never allowed to join in any reindeer games, so they invent this whole new world of god so they can feel accepted and in control. then there are people who are even more childish who believes in those sort of stuff.

[Ed0719]

So god picks and chooses who it is going to save based on how many people pray for that person? It always amuses me when someone, say survives a horrific tragedy, and says that god saved them... I have to ask why you and not the hundreds of others who died in the same event? If there really was a god and it was that arbitrary and vindictive, it would not deserve worship.

When mankind didn't know any better and needed to explain how things were, inventing gods gave an easy answer to many questions. We know better now.

[madumpty]

Oh please....God 'saved' the kid after God gave the kid heart problems and stopped his heart in the first place?
Or maybe the devil stopped his heart and gave him heart problems then God 'saved' him.

Its what just kills me when these folks go on about being saved by God after disasters....who in the heck do you think CAUSED the disaster in the first place?

You simply can't have it both ways, either God has no control of natural disasters and its fate who lives or dies or God causes the natural disasters (if not then he is NOT all powerful) then saves people randomly.

But then why am I attempting logic with religion, there is nothing logical about it.

[susanhelit]

singinrick - your faith was not being attacked when you posted, right at the start, 3 times in a row - not responding to anyone. You've got a problem with taking over topics, making them all about your need to push your beliefs. And it's not God people are hating - it's people trying to force them to believe as they do. Pushy, rude, obnoxious people who can't just say what they believe, and stop, people who have to say their beliefs over and over again, with or without encouragement.

Think about it - why did you post three times, right in a row, not replying to anyone? Did you have 3 different things to say, or did you just figure your opinion was worth everyone hearing it over and over?

[gaye5]

passerby2, your arguments dont add up, when a someone tried to tell people that the world was round and they ridiculed the person for that, he of course came back with many reasons why he knew or thought it was round.. would you say that that person was floundering just because he couldnt get through to those who didnt believe him.
passerby2, the beauty of this argument is that if singinrick and childofGod28 are wrong they dont have eternaty to worry about and have nothing to loose but if you are wrong????

[gaye5]

And singinrick and childofGod28 although I have just posted what I have, religious people who carry on and on turn me off also... Having a belief in God is fantastic, but you are better to keep quite than to turn these people off totally... you might think that you are helping them but you are only turning them off... As I think I have said to you before, these people have their own lives to run, but when it is pushed down their necks when they are not asking for it then all you do is cause hatred towards God, and that anger from them doesnt mean that you are getting through to them in a good way either..

[susanhelit]

Funny how others who want to 'give god the glory' don't seem to have the same problems you do...almost as if their approach is somehow different than yours.... odd, huh? Something to do with a little compassion, a little understanding, a little consideration.

I've got no problem with God. I've got a problem with religion being pushed.

[bja8839]

no one is pushing any religion ok they are just saying GOD they arent saying any religion so stop your stupid ******** about religion being pushed when its not they are just thanking god and last time i check there were many different gods and many differnt religion's but yet i didnt see anyone say what religion they were taking about so stop ******** already