A teenage girl found floating face down in the sea without a heartbeat for over 40 minutes has survived.
Shelby Burns, 19, came back from the dead after being washed away by a freak wave.
One of her rescuers, lifeboatman Shaun Wright, 45, said: “It’s a rare thing that someone can leave hospital alive after us picking them up face-down from the water.
"Her chances of survival were minimal.”
Heart surgeon David Rose, who was called at just a few minutes’ notice, said: “I have never had any experience like this one.”
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Shelby, from Blackpool, was on a concrete walkway at night near the resort’s North Pier with two friends when a wave washed her into the sea and then knocked her out as she hit the sea wall.
She appeared to be dead when she was hauled into a lifeboat and rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital.
Mum Helen, 40, said: “We were prepared to say our goodbyes”.
But her heart started beating again 40 minutes after being admitted.
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After six weeks on a ward Shelby was allowed home.
She returned this week to the lifeboat station in Blackpool to thank the people who saved her.
Despite suffering short-term memory loss and numbness in her left side, she said: “If it wasn’t for them, I definitely I wouldn’t be here.”
