SEATTLE (AP) — A hiker who was rescued after being lost overnight in a whiteout in Mount Rainier National Park has been brought back to life after what his medical team is calling an amazing recovery.
The Seattle Times reports that 45-year-old Michael Knapinski, of Woodinville, Washington, was airlifted off the mountain last Sunday to Harborview Medical Center where he died in the emergency room.
The medical team repeatedly performed CPR and hooked him up to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, machine, which pumped blood out of his body into a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide, and then back into the body.
He's now recovering after having his heart stopped for 45 minutes.
