"Cooled" man home from hospital

Croydon, Pa.; February 13, 2008

You may recall Mark Irwing, whose body was cooled to 94 degrees to save him from internal bleeding and liver failure.

Last month, we told you his story, and showed how a team at Jefferson University Hospital did it by putting him into a cooling suit.

Today, Mark was relaxing in his home in Croydon, Bucks Country, his first day out of Jefferson University Hospital.

He barely remembers the day he desperately called 911 for help.

Mark recalls, "Everything in the ambulance, everything in the E-R was completely white - people, clothes, everything had light bright lights all over the place."

After 23 days in a coma, being pronounced dead 4 times, and undergoing the cooling procedure, Mark woke up.

He says, "It was like it was the next day when I woke up."

Mark is now catching up on what happened while he was "away."

He learned part of his story from our original story on him. "When I saw the first thing that you did on me, on TV, I cried, I was really emotional, thinking that was me, and I'd been through all that."

His family says they became a bit of celebrities at the hospital, veteran staffers even asking after Mark's condition, in part, because of Action News coverage.

Soon, he heads to California, where his wife has a new job - thankful for the efforts and the technology which saved his life.

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