'It was terrifying' | Patient's heart stopped for 20 minutes during surgery, and doctors brought him back

'It was terrifying' | Patient's heart stopped for 20 minutes during surgery, and doctors brought him back

When Todd Brainard's horse reared and threw him off, he shattered his pelvis, but after being airlifted to Denver Health, it was what happened during surgery that scared doctors.

"We were obviously expecting things to run very smoothly, and it didn’t," said Dr. Cyril Mauffrey, who heads Denver Health's Department of Orthopedics.

The surgery – on the evening of the Fourth of July – was going well, and they were almost done putting the hip socket together when Brainard's heart stopped. As the orthopedic surgeon, Mauffrey was no longer the expert. But the vascular surgeon arrived in seconds.

"He was next door operating," Mauffrey said.

Together with the new surgeon and about 15 doctors, residents and nurses, they did CPR and chest compressions for 20 minutes.

"We never gave up, we kept on pushing," he said. "Kept on doing what was necessary to bring him back to life. And it was terrifying. However many times and however many years you’ve been doing this for, it remains a terrifying situation."

Todd's wife, Summer, waited and wondered what was happening in the surgery room. The family is from Ohio, and they aren't familiar with Denver or doctors here.

"They said it would maybe be a four-hour surgery," she said. "And we did not hear anything in the four hours. So we were getting really nervous."

Denver Health brought her husband back.

"It’s wonderful," Summer said. "He was in the perfect place for this to happen. Everything, all the conditions around him. This happening at this moment was just a miracle that it happened the way that it did."

Two days after the major surgery, Brainard isn't out of the woods yet, but he's getting there, Mauffrey said.

"When you think there’s nothing you can do, there’s a whole team around available on the spot to make a difference in a patient’s life," he said.

Brainard still can't speak, and Summer joked this is the longest he's gone without talking.

"I’ve never wanted to hear him talk more than I do now," she said, laughing. "So I will never complain about him constantly talking anymore. I just can’t wait."