Miracle heart attack survivor had congenital heart disease

Feb 13 2007

As 17 year old Daniel Walker was completing his final lap of jogging in his high school gym class on January 19th, he collapsed with a heart attack.

Daniel was unaware that he had a rare congenital heart disease that had left his coronary artery pinched, giving him only 10 percent of normal heart capacity and his heart quite simply gave out on him.

Following days of fighting to keep Daniel alive by using a bypass machine to keep his blood pumping through the body in the hope of a heart transplant, Daniel's heart began beating again of it's own accord.

While doctors at the hospital have expressed their surprise, and are at a loss to explain the recovery, Daniel's parents see the event as nothing short of a miracle.

Walker's cardiac surgeons said they can not account for the young man's recovery but within two days of the heart beating again on it's own they were able to fix the flaw in Walker's heart, increasing its capacity to 60 percent.

The doctors believe CPR and electric shocks were instrumental in making Daniel one of the first people with such a heart condition to be successfully revived.