Moore Healthy

Oklahoma Man Experiences Miracle Recovery After Heart Attack, Seizure

Christopher Fennell, Norman Regional patient and Broken Arrow native, reunited with doctors and hospital healers who helped him through his treatment. Providers included intensivist Amy Bacchus, MD; neurologist Brett Dees, MD; neurosurgeon Stephen Eichert, DO; cardiologist Archana Gautam, MD; neuro hospitalist Lane Tinsley, MD, and cardiothoracic surgeon Kyle Toal, MD.

Just coming off a business trip, Fennell met with his family for dinner at a local Norman restaurant and upon leaving to the parking lot, began to suffer a heart attack, lung collapse and a seizure simultaneously. He had fallen onto the concrete with the impact forceful enough to rip his jeans at the knee, yet his head landed safely on a grassy knoll. His son began to initiate CPR as an off-duty paramedic happened to be on the scene and assisted. Help was on the way and EMTs arrived in just under three minutes. Fennell was then transported to the Norman Regional HealthPlex, where he began to undergo his treatment.

“I was in the ICU for 10 days, the first five of which, I was completely unresponsive. My wife literally thought she would be taking care of me for the rest of my life,” Fennell said. “I started to improve on the night of the fifth day and was flown to Atlanta to the brain and spinal rehab center. They told my wife I would be there for 10 weeks and I left in two, then they checked me into the outpatient program and they told me I’d be there for six to eight weeks, but I left in three.”

Fennell has essentially made a total recovery as of Sept. 3, 2021. He struggles with some word recall, but that’s the extent of his lingering symptoms from experiencing cardiac arrest, a seizure, an anoxic brain injury and a collapsed lung.

“God put breadcrumbs all along the path to lead me to my recovery. I did not do anything; this is not a story about me. This is a story about God and how he works in the world today,” Fennell said. “There is no way this is coincidence. What I have learned from this process is that we all receive blessings every day and we do a very poor job of looking for them, recognizing them, showing appreciation for them and sharing them with others. We have to get better about that. We all need to become Blessing Ambassadors.”

Fennell is back to work and is resuming life as usual with his family, but has a new outlook on life after a humbling and extraordinary journey the past few months.