DENVER — A Littleton man is recovering after multiple cardiac arrest events doctors didn't expect him to survive and his family is holding onto him tight and thankful they'll have another Thanksgiving together.
"It's very extraordinary and we are very, very lucky," said Deirdre Martinez.
For the past week, AdventHealth Porter has been home for Chad Martinez. His wife, Deirdre, always close by his side.
He's resting up after one of the scariest experiences of both their lives more than a week ago.
"Very typical night, everything was normal," Deirdre said.
Deirdre said she woke up at 2 a.m. when her husband went into cardiac arrest. She started chest compressions, quickly dialing 911.
"But they were at our house, the sheriff's office was at our house within three minutes," Deirdre said.
First responders stabilized Chad and quickly got him to AdventHealth Littleton. But by the time they'd arrived, Chad's condition took a step back.
"At that point, he went into cardiac arrest again," Deirdre said.
She said doctors began looking for a clog, searching for any source for the problem. Doctors told Deirdre it wasn't a heart attack but an electrical issue with Chad's heart.
To help, they needed to transfer him to specialists nearby.
"But, before we got there. My husband went into cardiac arrest for over four hours, just over and over and over again," she said.
It was agony for Chad and for Deirdre.
"I think what was hardest about this whole thing was we got him to the place where he was stable enough to talk to us and ask us questions and then to go back into cardiac arrest again," Deirdre said. "And then, to have it happen repeatedly over and over, it was a nightmare for our family."
"They shocked him as much as they could there, they've shocked him probably over 100 times, that's the most I've ever heard of getting shocked externally. They did everything they could," said Dr. Sri Sundaram, an electrophysiologist at AdventHealth Porter and South Denver Cardiology Associates.
They were able to stabilize Chad, flying him to AdventHealth Porter where Sundaram and a team were waiting.
"We were very lucky that day in that all of the doctors that needed to be involved happened to be here and happened to be available all at the same time," Sundaram said.
That luck would carry Chad through the operating room as Sundaram and the team searched for the spot on his heart causing the issue.
"We were lucky, we were able to find it," Sundaram said.
It took three doctors four and a half hours to find it and then remove it. Doctors knew the odds but hoped all the same.
"It's absolutely a miracle. Multiple times throughout the case, I did not think he was going to survive and he made it," Sundaram said. “I’ve been here 17 years now and I’ve done over 3,000 cardiac ablations and I’ll tell you, that was the finest work we’ve ever done.”
Doctors removed the damaged tissue and put in a defibrillator, in case anything like this would happen again.
"We're very, very grateful for everything," Deirdre said.
For Chad, the details of what happened are mostly hazy.
"First thing I remember is waking up to a shock, which is not something I wouldn't recommend. It's scary," Chad said.
But after a week of rest and constant care, their 8-year-old Eva and 4-year-old Owen are ready for dad to come home.
"They both just said last night, they're like so he's coming home tomorrow, this is happening. So I'm very, very lucky I get to say that to him and he actually gets to come home," Deirdre said.
“I feel good. The fact that I’m walking out of here 10 days after this started is just, you can call it miraculous, you can call it just the power of human spirit and energy," Chad said.
After surviving against such slim odds over and over, the Martinez family is feeling grateful for the doctors who saved his life over and over again and for the ability to spend Thanksgiving together at home.
"Really excited, I'm going home today. So I feel extraordinarily grateful. I know it's the season of Thanksgiving and all of those things, but certainly has a new meaning for us," Chad said.
The Martinez family stressed Chad had no prior signs of any issues, like shortness of breath of dizziness, just a slight family history of cardiac arrest. Doctors told them genetic testing would have been the only thing to help them prevent what happened.
Now, they're urging others with family history to talk to their doctors and get tested and hopeful that their story can help prevent cardiac arrest in others.
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