Fabrice Muamba had to be brought back to life on Saturday night after spending nearly an hour and 20 minutes without his own heartbeat, his medical team have revealed.
Doctors have given the most detailed insights yet into the events that might have brought tragedy to Bolton Wanderers' FA Cup meeting with Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.
There were 48 minutes between Muamba’s collapse and his arrival at the London Chest Hospital, and another half-hour before his heart could be restarted.
“In effect, he was dead in that time,” Jonathan Tobin, Bolton’s team doctor, said.
So grave was Muamba’s condition that while waiting in the hospital corridor for news, Tobin did not expect the player to be revived. He broke down in tears.
But, after no fewer than 15 shocks from a defibrillator, the first two on the pitch and another in the players’ tunnel, Muamba began to produce his own pulse.
Paramedics also administered regular chest compressions to mimic a heartbeat and to provide circulation to his brain.
It gives a stark indication of the trauma suffered by Muamba’s body.
Indeed, so remarkable has the 23 year-old’s recovery been since his cardiac arrest that the cardiologist who administered the emergency treatment on the White Hart Lane pitch yesterday described it as “a miracle”.
Andrew Deaner is the Tottenham fan who jumped down from the stands to oversee the medical treatment being given to the midfielder. In a potentially life-saving twist of fate, Deaner, a consultant cardiologist at the London Chest Hospital where Muamba is being treated, happened to be attending the match with his brother.
He said: “If you’re going to use the term miraculous, I guess it could be used.” It is a term Muamba’s family have frequently employed in recent days.
Bobby Barnes visited the hospital on Wednesday to give Muamba’s father, Marcel, an £830 Lladro “Champions Team” statuette on behalf of the Professional Footballers’ Association, where he is deputy chief executive.
“His parents are strong people, very committed Christians and they have faith in God,” Barnes said. “They feel like their prayers have been answered.”
Even Deaner was taken aback by the player’s witty response right at the earliest outset of his recovery. Deaner was the first to speak to him upon his revival from an induced coma on Monday.
“I whispered into his ear, ‘What’s your name’,” recalled Deaner, with Muamba giving his name in response.
“I said, ‘I understand you’re a very good footballer’. And he said ’I try’.”
Deaner admitted that quip brought tears to his own eyes.
But although hopes are high that Muamba will one day make a full recovery, the doctor did sound a cautious note when asked if the former England Under-21 international would ever again play top-level football.
He added: “He’s made a remarkable recovery so far. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.
"As things stand, I think his life is not in danger at this time. His neurological function is looking very good but it is early days.”
Dealer said the emergency aid given to Muamba on the pitch had been exemplary, to the extent that footage of the incident could be used as a textbook case to school medics on how to deal with a complex cardiac arrest.
It was the club doctor, Tobin, who gave Muamba mouth to mouth in an effort to restore his respiratory function, a procedure he administered in front of almost 40,000 football fans.
“I can’t begin to explain the pressure that was there,” Tobin said.
“As I was running on to the pitch, once I got there, my focus was entirely on Fabrice. I wasn’t aware that players had gathered around. From a personal point of view, this is Fabrice.
“This isn’t somebody that’s gone down in the street or been brought into A&E.
"This is somebody that I know: I know his family. This is somebody I consider a friend, this is somebody I joke with on a daily basis.
“Fabrice was in a type of cardiac arrest where the heart is showing lots of electrical activity but no muscular activity. It’s something that often responds to drugs and shocks.
“Fabrice had, in total, 15 shocks. He had a further 12 shocks in the ambulance [after three at the ground].”
But when the incident was three days behind him, medics felt able to convey to the player exactly what he has been through.
“I’m glad to say that the early signs of recovery have continued,” Tobin said.
“I went to see Fabrice on Tuesday night. I went in and he said, ‘hi, doc’.
"I asked him how he was and he said ‘fine’.
"I explained to him what had happened. That’s the sort of level of communication I have had with Fabrice.”
After all he had witnessed, Tobin will never forget the moment he knew Muamba’s cognitive functions were returning.
That moment came when Tobin, who had been holding Muamba’s hand while he lay in his bed, felt his own hand squeezed by the player’s grip.
“It was just incredible, I can’t describe it really,” he said.
Tobin, though added a further not of caution. He said: "This is a first step in a long, long road.
"But this is a family club and we look after our own. I think the overexcited talk of Fabrice returning to football is irrelevant. He’s still in intensive care and unaware of anything that has been said about him.
"He doesn’t know the implications this has had on the whole planet.
The importance of an immediate response to such a problem was highlighted yesterday when an Indian player died after collapsing on the pitch during a district-level league match.
Bangalore Mars striker D Venkatesh, 27, collapsed following a cardiac arrest at the Bangalore Football Stadium.
With no ambulance around, his team-mates hired a tuk-tuk to take him to a local hospital where Venkatesh was declared dead.
-Matt Scott
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk