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Ed Yeates ReportingA Salt Lake man's heart stopped suddenly while he was dangling 70 feet above the ground on a chairlift at Brighton ski resort. Doctors are amazed today how he survived without any damage to his brain or heart.
Julian Kinzie, his friends call him Gil, never thought he would be doing this six days later.
Gill Kinzie: "For all the dominoes that had to fall for me to be in the situation I'm in now, compared to the situation I was in, it's a miracle."
"Cold" almost became a permanent fixture for this 52-year old skier. Gil was on a ski lift; his heart had stopped; he was in full arrest. By the time he reached the top of the mountain he had no pulse, wasn't' breathing and his face was turning purple.
A friend held him in the chair until they reached the top. There, Malia Bowman and Ethan Frank with the Ski Patrol, and many other people, became as one force, determined to revive what appeared to be a dead man.
A portable defibrillator that had just found a home at the top of the lift zapped his heart back to life. He was packaged up and transported down the mountain to Lifeflight, all in about ten minutes.
Malia Bowman, Ski Patrol: "More people should have these, you know. It's not like you can time when you're going to go down. It's always going to be at the most inconvenient time."
Ethan Frank, Ski Patrol: "It amazes me that he's out walking around, talking, totally fine. Amazing. It's cool."
Surgeons at LDS Hospital implanted a stent, reopening an artery. There was no damage to the brain or heart. That's remarkable, says Dr. Jim Revenaugh.
Gil has a message for all those who rallied around his dying body.
Gil Kinzie: "I would like to thank 'em all. I'm not going to go into the list of names because it's just too huge, but thanks everybody."
