A newborn baby is being credited as a lifesaver for one Utah family who said she is the sole reason the family’s patriarch is alive today. Dubbed a “double blessing,” grandpa came to the hospital to meet the newest family member, where he suffered a medical emergency that, had it taken place anywhere else, would have likely taken his life.
The man collapsed and went into cardiac arrest right in his daughter’s hospital room. Because he was already in the hospital, he was just seconds away from the help he desperately needed. He may not have survived otherwise.
KSL News reported on the extraordinary story of Alt and his granddaughter, Gia, who could very well be the reason he is alive today. According to the outlet, Aintzane Simpkins gave birth on Wednesday, September 3, to a healthy baby girl that she named Gia. Naturally, Simpkins’ parents, Toby and Valerie Alt, came to visit her and Gia at the North Logan, Utah, hospital.
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“My dad got up to kind of move around because he was getting some heartburn,” Simpkins recalled. “All of a sudden, he just rolls over and falls to the ground.” Because they were in a hospital, Alt was able to get the help he needed swiftly. Simpkins continued, “Within 30 seconds, there were probably 15, 20 people in this room, trying to revive my dad. In the moment, it’s just, ‘Oh my gosh, my dad is dead.’”
Thankfully, Alt pulled through. Emergency room nurse Derek McLeod said that hospital staff performed CPR and shocked Alt with a defibrillator, restarting his heart. He was then flown to a nearby hospital, where he had surgery to have a pacemaker implanted.
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McLeod added that he didn’t think Alt would have made it if he had collapsed somewhere else because he needed medical attention within seconds. Because of Gia’s birth, he just happened to be at a hospital.
Perhaps even more incredible is the fact that Gia was born early. Simpkins had a planned induction scheduled a few weeks away, but began having contractions early. Doctors discovered that Gia was breech, so they delivered her by C-section. If Gia had been born when originally planned, her birth wouldn’t have coincided with her grandpa’s emergency. It seems that fate had a different plan for them both.
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Simpkins said, “We call her little lifesaver. It’s like [Gia] knew she needed to get out, and we needed Grandpa here at the hospital.” Her mom, Valerie Alt, added, “It was a double blessing. We got our little Gia, and we get their dad and my husband here for a long time now. So, we’re very grateful.”
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According to the American Red Cross, only 10% of people who go into cardiac arrest outside of a hospital actually survive. This means that the odds would have been stacked against Alt if he had collapsed anywhere else.
As for the pacemaker implanted in Alt, KSL reported that the device is keeping his heart beating. Yale Medicine described a pacemaker as “an implantable device that delivers an electrical pulse to the heart to regulate a slow heart rate.” They estimated that three million Americans live with the devices.
It’s truly astounding that Alt was at the hospital when he was, and that medical advancements exist that are keeping him alive. His granddaughter did indeed provide the family with a “double blessing.”
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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
