Before I go on with this article, I want you to sit down and ask yourself a very, very serious question, to look into your heart of hearts and ask: how much do you like your favorite team? I mean really, truly, what is the extent of your passion? What would you do for it? How highly does it rank in your day to day priorities? Does it constitute a matter of life and death? All these questions revolve around the main, initially asked question.
Think about it now, get an answer in your head, and then think about that answer after you have finished reading the story I am about to tell you.
A 14-year-old boy in Italy has undergone one of the most miraculous recoveries I have ever heard of. He — ‘Michael,’ only his first name has been released — along with five of his friends decided to jump off of a bridge and into a canal in Milan, Italy. Innocent, enough, to be sure, but fleetingly so.
Michael failed to resurface with his friends. He stayed down, and did not come up until he was rescued by a “team of people and fire service divers,” who made a human chain to drag him from the clutches of the murky depths…42 minutes later.
42 minutes.
When Michael was finally brought out of the water, his heart had stopped and he was assumed to be dead. Even the most shameless, borderline ignorant optimists would have to admit that this story and life of Michael should have ended there.
Michael fell in a canal that may have looked much like this one. Photo: @I__Love__Italy | Twitter
The current world record for length of time a human being has held their breath under water is 22 minutes and 22 seconds, currently held by 35-year old Tom Sietas. Sietas is a seasoned “free diver” that specializes in things like dynamic apnea, or swimming the greatest possible distance underwater without breathing. Michael is a 14-year-old boy who probably specializes in playing FIFA with his favorite team, Juventus, but more on that later.
Despite the bleak — to put it lightly — outlook for Michael, an attempt was made to restart his heart with a defibrillator, and it worked. Michael was by no means out of the clear, but the first in a string of miracles had been performed.
Upon arrival at a hospital, Michael’s doctor, Alberto Zangrillo — who apparently is the personal physician to none other than Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — realized that his blood was so deprived of oxygen that he needed to be put under a medically induced coma so a redical procedure could be performed. His life still hang in the balance.
Zangrillo and his team would begin “extracorporeal membrane oxygenation,” a process that involves extracting oxygen-deprived blood, warming it up and adding oxygen, before pumping it back into the body. Michael's body returned to a healthy state after 10 days of undergoing this technique. He was still in a coma, and the health of his brain remained unclear.
“After 15 days we performed an MRI scan and his brain appeared OK,” said Dr Zangrillo. A good sign the would turn into a precursor for the second miracle of Michael's recovery: four weeks after he was dragged from the water, he woke up. Michael, for all intents and purposes, was back.
"He has recovered the spirit of the kid his parents and friends knew. He is a great guy, with uncommon intelligence. Every day I talk to him and joke,” said Zangrillo.
Showing that spirit, one of the very first things that Michael asked his parents about was whether or not Juventus, his favorite team, were still in the Champions League.
Think about that for a second. After spending 42 minutes underwater, getting all of the blood in his body taken out, warmed up, and reoxygenated, and then spending another 2 and a half in a coma, Juventus was still at the forefront of Michael's mind.
So, going back to the question posed to you at the beginning of this article, how much do you love your favorite team?
I like Arsenal a lot. I like a lot of things in life in general. I would even say I love a good amount of things, but after hearing the story of Michael, I find myself seriously reconsidering what I place on the list of "Things I Truly Love." I don't think Cheddar Goldfish make the cut anymore.
In a press conference held after Michael’s recovery Dr. Zangrillo told the press that “There are very big question marks about the human brain. We don’t know its full possibilities. What we do know is that you should never give up.”
Who knows what kind of subconscious thoughts kept Michael going, ready to have his heart restarted after spending 42 minutes underwater, and preserving his higher functions in general. Maybe it was Juventus, maybe it was something else. All I know is this: If Juvetnus wins the Champions League, my first thought will be of Michael.
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