At New York City’s Columbia University, a post-arrest clinic was established several years ago and researchers are learning that the lingering psychological fallout can undermine future health. One study found that nearly one-third of survivors left the hospital with related post-traumatic stress disorder. Those who did were more likely to die or suffer serious heart problems during the following year.

Sachin Agarwal, a Columbia neurologist and one of the authors of that study, theorises that the understandable stress over the suddenness of the arrest can sabotage healthier behaviours. Survivors might be nervous about exercising, worried about triggering an arrest. They might be reluctant to take medication or even to see a doctor, because it reminds them of what happened that day that their heart stopped.

Doctors and nurses passionate about boosting in-hospital survival rates relish in stories like Rima’s – of near resurrection against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Yet they also worry that too many people don’t recognise that some patients can’t be saved. And that for patients, and their loved ones, there’s more at stake than simply regaining a pulse.

“There are more lives to be saved – absolutely true,” Mancini says. “But we must do that work in the context of whether or not we’re resuscitating the right people.”

“If you save a lot of people and they are not neurologically intact, that’s a problem.”

When Dahart talks to very ill patients and their loved ones about do-not-resuscitate (DNR) paperwork, she’ll remind them that resuscitation is not a guaranteed reboot.

“Just because we bring you back,” she’ll say, “doesn’t mean that we can promise you that you’re going to be as good as you are right this minute.”

But for some people, simply being alive is good enough, she says. “Their reasons are none of my business.” If there’s no DNR, Dahart and her code team colleagues will do their utmost to restart that heart.

Still, it’s difficult not to fret that a patient may have lost out on what Dahart thinks everyone deserves, “a graceful, dignified end”. She still vividly recalls one ICU patient, a man with terminal stage 4 liver cancer, “yellow as the day is long”. While he understood the kind of death his cancer would likely give him, he chose not to sign a DNR.

“And he clearly said, ‘If my heart stops, I want you to start it.’ He coded on us, and it was awful. We never restored a pulse on him.”

After that code – and after each of the many, many since – Dahart and the team hold a debrief about what happened, what went well and what they can improve when the next patient’s heart stops. Then Dahart returns to her other work, caring for acutely ill patients.

Until the next code is called.

Then she’ll take off running.