Back From The Dead

John Smith had no pulse for nearly an hour after drowning—then his heart started beating again as his mom prayed. The new movie Breakthrough tells his incredible story.

- Julie Jordan

When John Smith arrived at the ER, frigid and without a pulse, even veteran doctors thought he didn’t stand a chance. On Jan. 19, 2015, Smith, then 14, had been goofing around with two friends out on the frozen Lake Sainte Louise in St. Charles, Mo., when the ice gave way and all three boys fell through to the water below. While one friend scrambled out and the other was quickly rescued, Smith slipped under the surface of the water and sank to the bottom, where he remained for 15 minutes while first responders frantically tried to find him. After firefighters pulled out his body, paramedics and doctors at the nearby St. Joseph Hospital West performed CPR for 43 minutes, to no avail. “When John arrived by EMS, he was cold, lifeless,” ER doctor Kent Sutterer said in 2015. “We immediately went to work, knowing that this is a grave situation...this is what we call in a lot of instances a ‘practice case’ because you don’t expect any return to life.”