A 66-year-old man miraculously survived after his heart stopped 40 times within an hour, two days after he underwent a bypass surgery for heart disease.

Bekir Demirtaş, who lives in the northeastern city of Erzincan, was suffering from chest pains when he was admitted to Mengücek Gazi Research Hospital. Doctors found three arteries in his heart that were almost entirely clotted and decided to perform surgery on the elderly man. Following a four-hour, successful surgery, Demirtaş was taken to the intensive care unit. To the shock of doctors, his heart stopped beating just as he was being transferred to another ward of the hospital after he recovered in the intensive care unit.

Surgeons who performed on Demirtaş rushed to his aid and tried to resuscitate the patient to no avail. Doctors even massaged the patient's heart with their hands through an incision. Oruç Alper Onk, who led the team of surgeons, kept massaging the heart for about one hour and during that time, the patient's heart stopped beating at least 40 times before it came back to life. Once the heartbeats remained steady, the surgeons rushed Demirtaş to the operating table to perform another surgery. After spending another three days in the intensive care unit, Demirtaş is now recovering. Bekir Demirtaş does not remember what he went through but he says he now feels fine. He is rather fatalistic and pious, though. "One should not lose hope in Allah. Say His name and He will help. I believe Allah let me live longer," he told Anadolu Agency.