{"id":10773,"date":"2023-04-21T17:53:57","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T21:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=10773"},"modified":"2023-08-07T15:35:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T19:35:25","slug":"family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html","title":{"rendered":"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10779\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10779\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Berko-Family_credit-Caring-Bridge-Sammy-Berko25993-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10779\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Berko-Family_credit-Caring-Bridge-Sammy-Berko25993-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10779\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caring Bridge \/ Sammy Berko<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Texas teen Sammy Berko from Missouri, Texas, had made it to the top of a rock-climbing wall when the 16-year-old suddenly went limp. \u201cHe climbed to the top of the wall, rang the bell, as we were told, and then his body went limp, and it looked like he was either playing around or passed out. They weren\u2019t quite sure, and when they realized he was unresponsive, they lowered him slowly,\u201d Sammy\u2019s mother, Jennifer <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/news\/houston-area-family-loses-two-boys-but-one-is-revived-from-death\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">recalled<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0of the incident, which happened on January 7th. When Sammy was finally lowered down, everyone soon realized that he had gone into cardiac arrest. Workers at the rock wall climbing gym began CPR until paramedics arrived. They could not revive Sammy at the scene, and he was brought to Houston\u2019s Texas Children\u2019s Medical Center. Sammy was declared dead at the Emergency Room after two hours of CPR. \u201cThey looked at us and said, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, but he\u2019s gone,\u201d his mother said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sammy\u2019s parents sat with him to say their goodbyes. But then something amazing happened. \u201cI started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn\u2019t know how to save him. Suddenly, as I started praying, my husband said, \u2018Oh my gosh, he\u2019s moving,\u201d said his mother. The medical team returned and was able to locate a pulse. Sammy was intubated and put on a ventilator along with a series of heart medications. The professionals told Sammy\u2019s parents they had never seen anything like it. \u201cWe just stood there,\u201d said his mother. \u201cI mean, grateful is the biggest understatement ever to know that he might make it.\u201d Due to the amount of time Sammy had spent without oxygen, and the doctors expected him to experience severe brain damage. But Sammy surprised everyone again and only suffered short-term memory loss, which lasted for several weeks. His mother recalled she and her husband having to tell Sammy over and over what had happened since he couldn\u2019t remember the accident. \u201cWe kept telling him the story so many times that we eventually wrote it out, and we just gave it to him on a piece of paper, and every time he asked, we just pointed at the piece of paper. He asked them every single time, in the same order, the same exact questions, and it was every two minutes,\u201d said Craig, Sammy\u2019s dad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sammy is now recovering strength in his legs, which are very weak due to spending a month hospitalized. He also suffered a spinal cord injury from his collapse. Dr. Stacy Hall has been overseeing Sammy\u2019s rehabilitation. She called his recovery a miracle. \u201cWe do see kids all the time here who have had CPR, but with very prolonged CPR, we typically see very severe global anoxic brain injury, so to me, he is a literal miracle,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">For his part, Sammy appears to be taking it all in stride. Smiling during an interview, he spoke glowingly of his recovery. \u201cI knew it would be a weird, crazy experience learning to walk again and working on strength without using my legs to be able to balance me. It has just been an amazing experience here, actually, like I\u2019ve noticed that I\u2019m better every day! I\u2019m doing something new every single day.\u201d Sammy\u2019s accident has had a positive: the discovery of a genetic mutation in Sammy and his mother that is believed to have caused his cardiac arrest. It is also believed to have been what killed Sammy\u2019s brother, Frankie, who died three years ago at the same age that Sammy is now. Frankie had suffered a series of seizures until one ultimately took his life. Doctors had saved some of Frankie\u2019s DNA and discovered the mutation after Sammy\u2019s incident. Now he and his mother are on medications to prevent further cardiac arrest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Sammy\u2019s recovery will continue as his family adjusts to their home to prepare for his wheelchair. Currently, the family has insurance to pay for therapy but stated that their insurance would only pay for a few more sessions, while Sammy is expected to need years of therapy. Local youth group Congregation Beth El and Ridge Point High School teamed up and <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/jhvonline.com\/local-teens-raise-over-k-at-bake-sale-for-teens-recovery-p31491-89.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">raised over $10,000<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0for Sammy\u2019s recovery. Further ways to give can be found at Sammy\u2019s GoFundMe\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/help-support-sammys-medical-needs-and-therapies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">here<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.\u00a0<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas teen Sammy Berko from Missouri, Texas, had made it to the top of a rock-climbing wall when the 16-year-old suddenly went limp. \u201cHe climbed to the top of the wall, rang the bell, as we were told, and then his body went limp, and it looked like he was either playing around or passed&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":12701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sammy Berko was pronounced dead before he came back to life, where his family and loved ones are calling it a miracle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sammy Berko was pronounced dead before he came back to life, where his family and loved ones are calling it a miracle.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-21T21:53:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-07T19:35:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Jennifer-Berko_credit-KPRC-2-Click2Houston-YouTube-v02-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle","description":"Sammy Berko was pronounced dead before he came back to life, where his family and loved ones are calling it a miracle.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle","og_description":"Sammy Berko was pronounced dead before he came back to life, where his family and loved ones are calling it a miracle.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html","og_site_name":"Inspiration Report","article_published_time":"2023-04-21T21:53:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-07T19:35:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Jennifer-Berko_credit-KPRC-2-Click2Houston-YouTube-v02-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html","name":"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Jennifer-Berko_credit-KPRC-2-Click2Houston-YouTube-v02-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2023-04-21T21:53:57+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-07T19:35:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a"},"description":"Sammy Berko was pronounced dead before he came back to life, where his family and loved ones are calling it a miracle.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Jennifer-Berko_credit-KPRC-2-Click2Houston-YouTube-v02-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/89\/2023\/04\/Jennifer-Berko_credit-KPRC-2-Click2Houston-YouTube-v02-scaled.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"caption":"KPRC 2 Click2Houston \/ YouTube.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2023\/04\/family-calls-sons-recovery-after-being-dead-for-two-hours-a-miracle.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Family Calls Sons Recovery After Being \u201cDead\u201d For Two Hours a Miracle"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/","name":"Inspiration Report","description":"Inspiration News, Life Advice and Emotional Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/77cb6eeb5c74ee0eb8c77ea1ebc43c6a","name":"Leigh Pizzutilla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/824\/82495162063119d033794eb2206a0067x96.jpg","caption":"Leigh Pizzutilla"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/author\/lpizzutilla"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10773"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10782,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10773\/revisions\/10782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}