Scientists REVERSE brain damage in girl, 2, who almost drowned in a pool using oxygen therapy

Oxygen therapy has cured a three-year-old girl of brain damage after she almost drowned in a swimming pool, scientists claim. 

Eden Carlson was two years old when she pushed her way through the baby gate and a heavy door, then jumped into the family pool in Arkansas last February.

When her mother found her, she was lying face-down and motionless. 

After two hours of CPR and 17 EpiPen shots, her heart started beating again, but doctors warned she would be confined to a vegetative state for the rest of her life. 

Now, in what is thought to be a world first, Eden is running, talking, and laughing with as much energy as before - after undergoing 40 rounds of oxygen therapy. 

The results were so stark and Eden's MRI scans so clearly improved that her case has been published in a medical journal, Medical Gas Research.

The therapy, which costs $200 per 45-minute session, is not FDA-approved and is not covered by insurance. 

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Eden Carlson was two years old when she pushed her way through the baby gate and a door to jump into the family pool in Arkansas last February. Now she has no signs of brain damage

WHAT IS HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the breathing of pure oxygen in a pressurized tank.

It has long been used to treat divers with 'the bends' or decompression sickness. 

A person sits in the chamber that is increased up to three times the normal air pressure and pure oxygen is pumped in.

Lungs are able to absorb more oxygen in this state, which leads to quicker delivery to parts of the body through the blood stream. 

Studies have linked the treatment to restoring function to damaged cells and organs. Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Eden's mother Kristal said she was stunned by the turnaround - and even Eden's doctor Dr Paul Harch said he has never seen such a dramatic improvement. 

'This is the first case that I've seen such a huge difference,' Dr Harch, who is based in New Orleans, said.

'I was confident beforehand that the therapy could help her. But yes, it really exceeded my expectations.'

Eden is the youngest of five children in Fayetteville, near the Oklahoma border. 

On the day of the accident, she had been playing around with her older siblings and their mom Kristal, while their salesman dad Chris, 44, was at work. 

When Kristal, 40, got out the shower, she asked the other kids where Eden was. They thought she was with her. 

'I panicked and ran straight to the most dangerous place she could be - the swimming pool. 

'I couldn't believe it, she had pushed through the child's gate and this really heavy door. She since told us she was trying to get a ball which was floating in the pool.

'When I saw her there she was face-down. I pulled her out and started doing CPR, trying to remember what I'd learned as a teenager. My oldest daughter was calling 911.'

The paramedics arrived within 10 minutes and continued CPR as they got her in an ambulance, and into the emergency room. 

Kristal, her children, and her husband Chris sat outside the room for more than an hour. 

'I kept thinking, "this is taking too long, she's gone, they're going to give up soon",' Kristal recalled. 

Eventually, after an hour and 40 minutes, a surgeon came to inform them that Eden's heart was beating, but she was severely brain damaged. 

Eden was air-lifted to Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, three-and-a-half hours way, where she stayed with her parents for five weeks. 

'We took it in turns sleeping by her side,' Kristal said. 

'It was completely devastating. It was our absolute worst nightmare come true. She couldn't do anything. She couldn't focus her eyes, she had a feeding tube.

'Before she was so spunky, she was our little wild child, she loved climbing and running around. She was so active.'