Farmingdale near-drowning victim thanks rescuers

Charles Doyle was close to death when EMTs showed up at a Farmingdale home after he fell into a pool and almost drowned. Even after nine jolts from a defibrillator, he had no pulse.

But Thursday, the Franklin Square man had a chance to thank nine of the emergency medical technicians and paramedics from the Farmingdale Fire Department and his doctors at St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage for saving his life.

"Thank you for not giving up on me," Doyle, 31, told the group in his hospital room, as he choked up.

"That's not what we do," said paramedic Chris Pieloch.

Pieloch and his fellow firefighters played key roles in an extraordinary saga that began with Doyle being pulled from the bottom of a swimming pool Saturday in cardiac arrest, his lungs full of water and with no pulse. It ended with Doyle's expected full recovery - with no brain injury - and his going home soon, perhaps Friday.

Key to his dramatic recovery was the hospital's use of a machine called Arctic Sun Temperature Management System to cool his body temperature to 92 degrees Fahrenheit, which kept his brain functioning while medical personnel worked to keep him alive, a doctor involved in the treatment said.

"I have never seen someone so dead come back to life," said his friend Carlos Flecha of Bethpage.

Doyle, a secretary in the labor and delivery unit at North Shore University Medical Center in Manhasset, said he doesn't remember how he ended up at the bottom of the pool. Housesitting for Flecha's daughter in Farmingdale, he said he had worked a night shift and was sleeping that Saturday morning. He believes he must have been sleepwalking - something he said he has done before - and fell into the pool. Neighbors heard him yelling and pulled him out, calling 911.

Pieloch, who lives nearby, and his fellow rescuers were there within minutes. Doyle had no pulse and his heart was beating in a "very, very fatal" arrhythmia, Pieloch said. They gave him nine jolts with a defibrillator and a slew of medications to try to revive him, the paramedic said.

When he arrived at St. Joseph, Doyle still had no pulse and his heart was beating chaotically, said Dr. Joe Bruni, co-director of the emergency department who was working Saturday. "To be honest, we didn't know if he was going to survive," Bruni said.

Bruni said only two drugs Doyle hadn't already gotten remained to be administered. "At that point you start to say, it's been 25 minutes, there's going to start to be brain injury," he said.

He and a team of six gave the drugs and another electric shock to Doyle's heart. His vital signs returned to normal, although he remained unconscious.

Bruni then put Doyle on the Arctic Sun Temperature Management System to cool his body and, most importantly, his brain.

It worked. After about 22 hours, Doyle was taken off sedatives. Some anxious minutes followed as family and friends waited to see if he would wake up. Flecha's daughter put some of Doyle's favorite music by India.Arie into his ear and he opened his eyes, Flecha said.

"The whole room erupted and a lot of tissues were passed," he said.

Behind the Arctic Sun Temperature Management System

• Pads containing water and gel are attached to ports connected to a machine that cools water.

• The pads are placed on the patient's chest and thighs.

• Water circulates through the pads, slowly lowering the patient's temperature within a range of 91.4 and 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Source: MayoHealthcare, mayohealthcare.com