Soldier gets second chance

Sgt. Ricardo Hernandez works with therapist Heidi Spain at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs on Wednesday. Fellow soldiers found him not breathing; doctors estimated his heart was stopped as long as 30 minutes.

Colorado Springs - Cecilia Sambrano made it to her son's bedside about 24 hours after his heart stopped.

In the intensive-care unit at Memorial Hospital, 21-year-old Sgt. Ricardo Hernandez, a Fort Carson soldier, lay in a coma, hooked to a ventilator. His heart was beating, thanks to emergency medical personnel who rescued him.

"I touched him. His body was really, really cold, which of course scared me," Sambrano said. "Being so cold, I figured he was dead. That's what the body feels like when you have died."

Sambrano later learned that Dr. Ronald Rains had directed nurses the day before to fill Ricardo's veins with ice-cold saline, lowering his body temperature to about 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

Read the rest at the Denver Post