Dora Downs
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According to all that's known of medical science, Dora Downs shouldn't be alive.
After she went into full cardiac arrest June 23, doctors at Jewish Hospital Kenwood spent hours trying everything from drugs to electric shocks and manual heart massage to restart her heart - all to no avail.
In fact, the 61-year-old Milford woman was so close to death that her medical chart was marked with a handwritten note saying "pronounced dead . . ." The only part left blank was the time.
But Mrs. Downs - dubbed "the miracle lady" by hospital staff - is most definitely alive. She's out of the hospital, into cardiac rehabilitation therapy and soon will be puttering around her garden again.
Mrs. Downs, her husband, her pastor and even her doctor - one of the Tristate's top cardiothoracic surgeons - all credit her survival to God and prayer.
In his 26 years of practice, said Dr. Creighton Wright, director of surgery for Jewish Hospitals, he has never experienced such a dramatic turnaround.
"Something clearly unusual happened," Dr. Wright said. "I thought she was going to die. I didn't have another medical idea about what to do. I asked everybody on our staff if they could think of anything else. We were literally at wit's end."
Mrs. Downs' saga began June 18, after shortness of breath prompted her to see a doctor.
On June 23, she went to Jewish Hospital Kenwood for a standard treadmill test. The results were highly abnormal.
The same day, she was taken to the hospital's cardiac catheterization lab for an angiogram - a test that allows doctors to look for clogged blood vessels. It found severe blockages in two major heart arteries.
Doctors decided to try a balloon angioplasty to open a vessel. But while lying on the table, Mrs. Downs went into full cardiac arrest.
As staff members used CPR and a variety of heart-starting drugs, Mrs. Downs was rushed to the operating room for emergency open-heart surgery. Within 15 minutes, Dr. Wright had connected her to a heart-lung machine that kept her body alive while he completed bypass procedures for the two clogged blood vessels.
But when the surgical team tried to wean Mrs. Downs off the heart-lung machine, they could get only a few irregular heartbeats - nowhere near enough to produce a life-sustaining blood pressure.
For more than an hour, the team tried everything: nitroglycerin, dopamine, adrenalin; electric shocks; weaning quickly and weaning slowly; warming the heart; direct, manual heart massage.
Nothing worked.
One last try
While Mrs. Downs' body was sustained by the heart-lung machine, Dr. Wright went upstairs to a waiting room filled with anxious family members to tell Druien Downs that on a day his wife went in for a routine test, there was nothing more he could do to save her.
"He was telling us that she was gone," Mr. Downs said. "I just told him I couldn't believe it was happening. I wouldn't believe it."
Dr. Wright promised to make one more attempt, just to make sure. "I told the family, 'If you have any prayers, this is the time to say them.' And when I went to scrub in, I very deliberately stopped and said the Lord's Prayer."
Back in the operating room, Dr. Wright asked his team whether there was anything left to try. No one could think of anything.
"For whatever reason, I reached back into her chest and squeezed the heart a half-dozen times, more out of frustration than anything else. And the heart just started picking up," Dr. Wright said.
Within a day, Mrs. Downs was awake. The ventilator and the heart-assist pump were disconnected. Her heart was beating on its own, and her brain was working just fine.
"They were asking me names and dates . . . to wiggle my toes and to follow their fingers around," she said. "I couldn't figure out why they were asking me all these questions."
Several days later, Mrs. Downs met with Dr. Wright to hear the entire story.
"I told her, 'You're not here by my hands. You're here by the grace of God,' " Dr. Wright said.
Healing faith
Richard Thomas, pastor of the Milford First United Methodist Church, where Mr. and Mrs. Downs have been members for years, recently told their story as part of a sermon about the mysteries of faith and the power of prayer.
"We believe that God works through doctors and nurses. We also believe that the power of prayer and faith is a real tool in healing," the Rev. Mr. Thomas said.
The prayer circles working for Mrs. Downs were extensive.
The Rev. Mr. Thomas was at the hospital with nearly the entire family: two daughters, a son, two brothers, three sisters, their spouses, two grandchildren, and a few nieces and nephews. The only close relative who couldn't be there was a daughter traveling in Florida.
Away from the hospital, other church members prayed for Mrs. Downs. In Northside, five neighbors joined Mr. Downs' brother-in-law in a prayer circle.
Those involved are convinced that God really did listen. Even Dr. Wright thinks science cannot fully explain why Mrs. Downs survived - especially without suffering severe brain damage.
"Oh, I'm sure somebody could say something, like a clot finally broke loose or there was some air in the heart. But this case was touching to me. It brought faith to me. She really is a miraculous lady," Dr. Wright said.
Well-deserved vacation
Mrs. Downs spent 17 days in the hospital. She has gone through four weeks of physical rehabilitation and has started 12 weeks of cardiac rehabilitation.
Day by day, the woman whom her grandchildren call "Nanna," and her husband calls "Dee," is getting back to her life.
"I really feel blessed," Mrs. Downs said.
The crisis helped bring her family - already close - even closer together. One daughter has started going back to church. And now, six weeks after the ordeal of their lives, Mr. and Mrs. Downs are talking about doing some traveling.
"We've been married for 41 years, and we've never really taken a vacation," Mr. Downs said. "We're going to go now."
