The aim of CPR is to keep a small amount of oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and heart so that, if they are successfully resuscitated, they are not permanently brain damaged.

During the game the father of German Coach Rudi Völler suffered from a heart attack inside the stadium, but was successfully resuscitated.

Category II donors are patients who have had a witnessed cardiac arrest outside hospital, have cardiopulmonary resuscitation by CPR-trained providers commenced within 10 minutes but who cannot be successfully resuscitated.

Ukiko dies for nine minutes but is successfully resuscitated.

Patients have been known to be successfully resuscitated after periods of hours in hypothermia and cardiac arrest, and this has given rise to the often-quoted medical truism, "You're not dead until you're warm and dead."

Thrombosis (myocardial infarction): If the patient can be successfully resuscitated, there is a chance that the myocardial infarction can be treated, either with thrombolytic therapy or percutaneous coronary intervention.

The 4-month-old infant's heart had been successfully resuscitated, but the brain had not survived.

Yet, the report notes, there are also extraordinary cases where "people, especially small children, who have been submerged for up to an hour in ice-cold water have been successfully resuscitated."

Owusu was successfully resuscitated and fell into coma, from which he recovered on 3 April 2008.

Of 344 patients who were successfully resuscitated after suffering cardiac arrest, 62 (18%) expressed an intraoperative memory and among these, 41 (12%) experienced core NDEs, which included out-of-body experiences.