Man Declared Dead Feels 'Pretty Good'

Sometimes I can't improve on the title of a post. I've had a couple of these things happen to me in my twenty-some years of nursing, where a patient I was caring for woke up and remembered me talking to them. It's always weird when it happens, and it doesn't happen often -- but it does reaffirm your faith in hope when it does.

I have to admit, my mind is awash with straight lines after reading this article. (I'll try to limit my responses, though . . . ) From the Associated Press via Yahoo News:

Man Declared Dead Feels 'Pretty Good'
Mon Mar 24, 10:09 AM ET

OKLAHOMA CITY - Four months after he was declared brain dead and doctors were about to remove his organs for transplant, Zach Dunlap says he feels "pretty good."

(Like "six beers later" pretty good?)


Dunlap was pronounced dead Nov. 19 at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, after he was injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident. His family approved having his organs harvested.

(Six beers later and an ATV ride and your organs get harvested. Sound like Saturday night in South Texas to me.)

As family members were paying their last respects, he moved his foot and hand. He reacted to a pocketknife scraped across his foot and to pressure applied under a fingernail. After 48 days in the hospital, he was allowed to return home, where he continues to work on his recovery.

(Ah, don't we all.)

"I feel pretty good. but it's just hard ... just ain't got the patience," Dunlap told NBC. Dunlap, 21, of Frederick, said he has no recollection of the crash. "I remember a little bit that was about an hour before the accident happened. But then about six hours before that, I remember," he said. Dunlap said one thing he does remember is hearing the doctors pronounce him dead. "I'm glad I couldn't get up and do what I wanted to do," he said.

(A Monty Python moment flashes across my brain. "No, I'm not!")

Asked if he would have wanted to get up and shake them and say he's alive, Dunlap responded: "Probably would have been a broken window that went out."

(Or broken up a Doctor and put him out!)

His father, Doug, said he saw the results of the brain scan. "There was no activity at all, no blood flow at all."

(And . . . that was different from every other day . . . how, exactly?)

"Just makes me thankful, makes me thankful that they didn't give up," he said. "Only the good die young, so I didn't go."

And on that note . . . . . .



~~JD~~