Yolanda George, mother of Christopher Gilbert, calls on police to make arrest after incident in Louisiana in April
The family of a 26-year-old Louisiana man who has brain damage after a friend allegedly pushed him into a lake despite him being unable to swim is calling on authorities to deliver them justice.
Christopher Gilbert’s family’s pleas came after he nearly drowned on 14 April while at a lakefront restaurant by Lake D’Arbonne in the northern Louisiana town of Farmerville.
Speaking to the local news station KSLA, Gilbert’s mother Yolanda George said: “A friend of his called. She was hysterical, crying on the phone. She told me that Chris had [fallen] into the lake, and he had been underwater for 20 minutes or so.”
George said her son – an aspiring medical doctor – was rescued and taken to a nearby hospital. She added: “The doctor called us in and told me that at that time, he was brain-dead, pretty much, and the rest of his organs were starting to fail, and that we had 72 hours on” life support, though Gilbert later regained consciousness and the ability to eat on his own.
I didn’t even know it was possible to bring people back from 20 minutes underwater!
They last even longer if the water is cold. In the winter people have been brought back after spending several hours dead under the ice after falling through and drowning. I think the record for someone who made a full recovery is 17 hours.
There’s a saying in EMS, “They’re not dead until they’re warm and dead.”
That’s amazing! 17 hours! There must be serious brain damage though, like in this poor man’s case.
Nope, it can be minimal to no brain damage at all, which is what makes these so wild to see. The cold keeps their brain and other cells from needing much oxygen, and thus keeps them from dying.
That’s amazing. The body is a really incredible thing. Maybe one day we’ll understand how that works and perfect it for putting people in long-term suspended animation.
Well, we don’t have anything for long-term suspension, but we do use it sometimes in cases of cardiac arrest.
Seriously. If I’m unconscious for that long, please do not bring me back.
It’s called the ‘mammalian diving reflex’
It’s triggered when ice cold water hits the back of the neck, and blood flow is redirected to just between the brain and heart, keeping the brain alive.
So it’s not the temperature of the water, per se., other than triggering the reflex.