A DAY FOR A MIRACLE

Young and ambitious cardiovascular surgeon and ultra marathon runner from Vienna, Dr. Markus Höchstmann, landed his first job in a clinic in Klagenfurt in the Austrian province of Kärnten. The fact that his family stayed in Vienna and Markus keeps commuting back to the capital whenever he can have earned him the reputation of being an arrogant city slicker. This is why there is little sympathy amongst his colleagues when Markus has to fill in for the senior physician at the weekend to perform surgery on an important local politician, even though it is Markus’s son’s birthday.

But just then, an emergency is rushed in: a drowned four-year-old girl, lifeless, cold, her heart has stopped beating. She had spent 30 minutes under water, too long for her brain to survive without damage.

The consensus of the emergency unit is not to try and resuscitate. Markus disagrees. When the politician’s condition worsens, Markus has to make a decision. Even though a similar resuscitation has never been accomplished before, Markus decides to do everything, to risk everything, to save the girl’s life. Despite never having performed surgery on a child before, despite the inadequate equipment and against the forceful opinion of his older and more experienced colleagues, Markus keeps fighting for the life of his little patient. With desperate courage and the dogged resilience of an ultra distance runner, he tries to make a miracle happen.