11-Year-Old Survives Avalanche

Dec. 28, 2007 — -- Call it a Christmas miracle.

An 11-year-old boy survived an avalanche after having been completely buried under the sliding snow for 33 minutes.

When Max Zilvitis of Park City, Utah, was found, he had no pulse and wasn't breathing.

Max's father, Brian Zilvitis, made a frantic 911 call just moments after digging himself out from beneath the sudden avalanche, only to discover that Max was buried alive — somewhere underneath as much as a five-foot blanket of snow.

"God, please help out!… I need to look for him before it's too late! Please!" he pleaded with the 911 operator. "Max, say something! My son is under there!"

Within minutes, the ski patrol and a line of volunteers probed the snow for signs of a body. Half an hour later, the pole of 16-year-old skier Emily Loughlin struck something solid.

"I said, 'I feel something.' The ski patrollers came and we were digging him out. And we found him, and it was really scary," Loughlin said.

Max was excavated — unconscious, blue and not breathing.

Dr. Brad Poss, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah, said, "He had no heart rate when he was found. It's very fortunate he's survived. He's done so well."

Max's mother, Samantha Zilvitis, told The Associated Press that doctors kept Max's body temperature low to minimize potential swelling of the brain. He breathed with the aid of a respirator and was under watch as his body temperature started to go back up.

When Max's body temperature did not increase as expected, doctors cut off his medication and began to wake him up aggressively.

Max immediately began asking where his skis, jacket and pass had gone, Samantha Zilvitis told the Desert Morning News.

Max said that a Discovery Channel program about how to survive an avalanche helped him when sheets of snow cascaded over him.

"Create air pockets," Max told himself.

Miraculously, Max was released from Primary Children's Medical Center, Wednesday, and his family plans to go back to the resort to thank the people who rescued him.