An American soldier has told how he died for 15 minutes after being shot by a sniper in Iraq.
Captain Joshua Mantz was hit by a bullet which had passed through his staff sergeant’s arm and chest before ricocheting into the 27-year-old’s leg, severing his femoral artery.
The 27-year-old – who returned to duty in Iraq five months after being seriously injured – said he experienced superhuman strength as he dragged 275lb Marlon Harper to safety while radioing for help.
Survivor: Captain Joshua Mantz, left, came back to life after dying for 15 minutes, pictured with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
The pair was attacked during a ground search of suspicious vehicle that had been circling them after they were deployed from a humanitarian task to a secondary mission.
‘I didn’t know that I’d been shot, but I knew something was wrong. It was confusion at first,’ Mantz told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.
‘The injury was so severe, I think my body was in shock. I could not hear anything except the muted sound of that sniper shot and myself calling for a medic.
‘I experienced slow-motion time. I could feel my body absorb the impact of that round. I could feel my body slowly move backwards.
‘I actually focused on the eyes of Staff Sgt Harper with crystal-like clarity and watched him fall to the ground very slowly.
‘When he hit the ground, the slow-motion time transitioned into fast-motion time. I dragged him out of the way about 40 or 50 feet – with a blown out femoral artery.
‘It is purely a trained response – he probably weighed about 275lb with all his gear on and I had about another 100lb of gear on me. He felt like a feather the whole time.’
Mantz had radioed for help, explaining that there were two casualties. When the medic arrived, he asked who the second was and Mantz replied, ‘I am’, before passing out.
‘That’s when my 19-year-old medic realised he had two catastrophic injuries on his hand,’ he added.
Mantz was taken to a forward operating base where he regained consciousness. He held on for another 20 minutes.
‘I was dying of blood loss,’ he explained. ‘I felt like I was running sprints around 400-metre track while breathing through a straw and unable to stop and when that feeling hit my stomach, I knew that the injury was getting out of control.
‘I rapidly started repeating three names in my head: My mum, my sister Kendra and my sister Melissa. And I rapidly repeated those names for the last 60 seconds of my life.
'When the blood creeping sensation moved out to my chest cavity, I knew that was it. I consciously said my last thought, took my last breath and then I died. I thought it was it at that point.
‘I woke up two days later in green zone to learn that I’d flatlined for 15 minutes straight.
'Most doctors in general will give up on a patient after six minutes of no breathing, no pulse, because that’s the point that serious brain damage sets in.
‘But my medical team never quit.
‘If I woke up at all, they expected me to have serious brain damage. And I woke up and recalled what had happened to the nurse as clearly as I am now.’
Mantz was flown back to America to recover in Washington after the incident in 2007. Five months later he was back on duty in Iraq.
The hero solider was the guest of honour at a memorial for American servicemen in LA last month.
‘He is a true American hero, and eager to share his amazing and inspiring story with you,’ a City release for the event stated.
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