A Fort Bend County teen is home now after a horrible health scare and a stunning recovery.
Sammy Berko, from the Sienna neighborhood, was pronounced dead at the hospital and, according to this family, minutes later he came back to life.
On January 7, Sammy and his friends went rock climbing. At the top of the wall, Sammy collapsed, and bystanders immediately started CPR.
He wasn’t stable enough to stop the CPR at the gym or on the way to the hospital. In total, he received an estimated two hours of CPR, which would leave most people with permanent brain damage.
This incident was especially tragic for the Berkos since they lost their younger son, Frankie, in a similar way three years ago.
“We couldn’t understand why is this happening again,” Mother Jennifer Berko cried. “We thought ‘how is this happening to us again?’”
Jennifer said doctors called Sammy’s time of death right in front of them and they were left in the room to say their goodbyes. She said she was praying in his ear when his head jolted and her husband screamed for doctors, assuming Sammy was attempting to catch a breath.
Doctors then were able to revive him but still prepared the Berkos for a life with brain damage.
WATCH HERE TO HEAR ABOUT THE MIRACULOUS MOMENT SAMMY PULLED THROUGH
Amazingly, Sammy has no neurological damage. He has been in rehab at TIRR Memorial Hermann for more than three months regaining strength and learning to walk with assistance.
During his stay, doctors determined his diagnosis is catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT). CPVT is a rare condition that increases your heartrate and sometimes makes the heart stop all together.
“Whenever he’s excited by anything - or stressful - that can actually cause his heart to go into ventricular tachycardia where it’s just beating very fast and can’t really pump blood to the rest of his body,” Dr. Autumn Atkinson with TIRR Memorial Hermann and UT Health explained. “And so that’s kind of what happened with him with that overall surge of emotions that he was going through at that time, it triggered his heart to go into ventricular tachycardia.”
Looking back, they think when Sammy climbed to the top of the rock wall, rang the bell and looked down, it triggered a rush that was almost deadly for him.
Knowing CPVT is genetic, the Berkos were tested for it and discovered mom Jennifer and their younger son Frankie had the condition. While the Berkos are thankful to have answers about how Frankie died, they agonize about what could have happened if they had known he had it earlier in his life. Meanwhile, medication is being used to hopefully keep Sammy and his mother in good health.
Even though they’ve identified this rare condition runs in their family, it still doesn’t explain how Sammy survived.
“He is definitely a miracle. He received over two hours of CPR total and so that amount of CPR is just mind blowing in itself that he’s able to sit here and talk with us today,” Dr. Atkinson said.
“He’ll be in medical journals for sure. They’re researching our family and it is such a rare disease that they’re still learning more about it,” Jennifer Berko said.
While they work to learn more and potentially prevent this condition from fatally impacting other children, Sammy is in therapy to reach his full potential.
“I’m working on a lot of strengthening, as far as upper body, because I have to use my upper body to do everything now and then I’m also working on a lot of walking and trying to get better at that, standing without support,” Sammy said. “I have to learn to do it all the way by myself then so that way I can live by myself eventually.”
