'Dead' Man Comes Back To Life After 20 Minutes

Dead Body — This picture shows a dead body at a morgue. Getty Images/ Sanjay Kanojia

A Michigan man who was declared dead miraculously came back to life 20 minutes after he was given several shocks to his heart as part of a revival procedure. The 20-year-old man, Michael Pruitt, was carrying a metal ladder at a Livonia job site when it touched a live electrical wire, electrocuting him.

Dr. Angel Chudler, an emergency room physician at Beaumont Hospital, said even after the man showed no vital signs, she decided to try to bring him back to life. Pruitt was “dead for 20 minutes” prior to resuscitation.

“I said to my team, ‘We’re bringing him back.’ And then I said to him, ‘You better come back!’” she said, according to the hospital’s blog.

And after another jolt from the defibrillator, Pruitt came back.

“When he became conscious again, he was like the Hulk, grabbing the railings and shaking the bed with huge strength. It took the entire care team to hold Michael,” Yasmeen Bachir, a clinical nurse who helped care Pruitt, said in the blog post.

Pruitt coming back to life was labeled miraculous as "brain cells start to die from lack of oxygen" in less than five minutes after the heart stops beating, Barbara Smith, the director of trauma services at Beaumont, said.

After being electrocuted at his worksite, Pruitt was given CPR before paramedics arrived at the scene and attempted to revive him with the defibrillator while en route to the hospital.

“Michael’s resuscitation is miraculous. He did not lose any brain function. It’s a testament to the importance of immediate continuous CPR to move oxygenated blood to the brain," Smith said.

There have been a few such incidents in the past where a person came back to life after being declared dead. Earlier this year, an elderly Russian woman declared dead by the police miraculously woke up a few hours later while in the morgue. The 62-year-old unnamed woman was heavily drinking at a party with her relatives when she appeared to have died. It was reported that the police did not follow a proper protocol before declaring her dead.