A 37-year-old Ohio man whose heart stopped for 45 minutes earlier this month says medical staff can't explain how he came back from the dead.

ABC News reported Tony Yahle's wife woke up early on the morning of Aug. 5 and noticed her husband's breathing was irregular. Melissa Yahle couldn't wake her husband up, so she called an ambulance and he was rushed to the hospital.

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That afternoon in the hospital Tony's heart stopped, according to WHIO TV, and for 45 minutes while doctors tried to revive him, the cardiac monitor stayed flat-lined.

Finally, doctors declared him dead and his son Lawrence, 17, ran to his father's hospital bed.

"Dad, you're not going to die today," he said, according to ABC.

And he didn't die. After Lawrence had pleaded for his father to stay alive, medical staff said they noticed his heart beat pulsing again once or twice each minute, according to ABC.

"When I looked at the electrical activity, I was surprised," Nazir told ABC. "I thought we'd better make another effort to revive him."

His heart rate sped up and a week later, Yahle is already feeling well enough to speak to television cameras, telling media he thought his survival was miraculous.

The doctor, who expected Yahle to at least require a heart transplant, used similar words to describe the patient's recovery.

"I'm calling it a miracle because I've never seen anything like it," Nazir told ABC.

Another patient in Australia also came back to life last week after her heart stopped for 42 minutes, according to Agence-France Presse.

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Vanessa Tanasio, aged 41, had a massive heart attack and she was declared dead after arriving at the hospital, according to AFP. However, a cardiologist was able to unclog her artery and shock her back to life.

She told media that only a week after her ordeal, she feels "great."