Little Girl's Brain Damage Reversed After Almost Drowning
Toddler's Brain Damage Is Miraculously "Reversed" After Nearly Drowning
Almost a year and a half after a toddler's near-drowning incident left her severely brain-damaged, she has made a drastic recovery — so drastic, in fact, that it's believed to be a first in medical history.
On February 29, 2016, two-year-old Eden Carlson nearly drowned in her family's pool, leaving her unconscious. Though her heart stopped beating for two whole hours after she was saved from the pool by her mother, she was miraculously revived by paramedics, but her prognosis wasn't too positive. Doctors predicted Eden would be in a vegetative state for the rest of her life. Eden would never walk, eat, talk, or react to her surroundings, they told her parents.
Eden's mother, Kristal, recalled her family's heartbreak upon seeing how severely Eden's life was altered by the occurrence. "It was completely devastating," she told the Daily Mail. "It was our absolute worst nightmare come true. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't focus her eyes, she had a feeding tube. Before she was so spunky, she was our little wild child, she loved climbing and running around. She was so active."
Determined to find a means of helping their daughter, Eden's parents were proactively seeking treatment options when they stumbled upon information about hyperbaric oxygen therapy online, the Daily Mail reports. So they decided to give it a try, and that ended up being exactly what fueled Eden's drastic recovery. At first, she received pure oxygen at sea-level pressures through her nose for 45 minutes twice per day, and then the family traveled to Louisiana, where she had to enter a pressurized chamber five days a week in order to breathe in pure oxygen. After 40 sessions, Eden seemed "almost 100 percent the same as before," Kristal told the Daily Mail, as her brain tissue regrew and the damage was reversed.
Now 3 years old, Eden has fully gained back her ability to walk, talk, and eat on her own, and she's just as bubbly and alert as she was before her near-drowning accident. Watch the video above to learn more about Eden's one-of-a-kind journey to recovery, and follow along on her Facebook page, Eden's Miracles, for more updates on her progress.
