A Nebraska man's life may have been saved when the ambulance rushing him to hospital hit a large pothole, stabilizing his dangerously fast heartbeat. The 59-year-old from Gretna suffered the emergency on Monday, April 15, after his heart started racing at 200 beats per minute, well above the healthy adult heart rate of 60 to 100 beats per minute. Gretna Fire and Rescue responded to the call and sped through the 20-minute drive to the emergency room, hitting a pothole during the seven-mile trip. The sudden jolt made the emergency truck jump, shocking the patient's racing heart back to a normal rhythm. A 59-year-old man's life was saved when he was rushed to the hospital on April 15 for a dangerously high heart beat of 200 beats per minute and the ambulance hit a pothole, and the sudden jolt slowed and regulated his heart rate Gretna Fire and Rescue responded to the call and sped through the 20-minute drive to the emergency room, hitting a pothole during the seven-mile trip, that may have ended up saving the man's life Dr. Andrew Goldsweig says a rapid heartbeat is often treated with an electrical shock and the sudden jolt of hitting a pothole had the same impact in startling and slowing this patient's heart The miraculous cure was reported via the Omaha Scanner on Twitter and on Facebook. 'Gretna Rescue enroute Lakeside Hospital with a patient with a heart rate of over 200 bpm. Gretna now calling them back to advise they struck a large pothole enroute which converted the patients heart to a normal rate! #OmahaScanner,' the scanner reported. Patients with perilously high heartbeats are often treated with an electric shock to regulate their heart rates. The sudden impact of hitting the pothole provided a similar type of shock to the patient, and slowed his heart rate. 'It's rare, but it's a well-described phenomenon,' Dr. Andrew Goldsweig, of Nebraska Medicine, said to WCVB. 'One way to treat (a rapid heartbeat) is with an electrical shock. Classically, you'll see it on television, the paddles, (someone saying) 'Clear' and a big jolt. Turns out, you can do that with a pothole,' he added. The patient was rushed to CHI Health Lakeside Hospital and is expected to make a full recovery Gretna Fire and Rescue's chief declined to speak about the lifesaving incident to respect the patient's privacy. The patient is expected to fully recover. But according to Dr. Goldsweig, this isn't the first time such a pothole miracle has struck. He cites a well-documented case from the late 70s when a patient was jolted int o a normal heart rate by a speed bump. The Omaha Scanner post went viral, racking up over 1,400 likes with many incredulous over the medical miracle. 'You cannot make this stuff up,' one Twitter user wrote. The post shared by Omaha Scanner on Monday April 19, went viral for the miracle pothole recovery Medics noted that the pothole isn't a solitary incident and that doctors have saved patients by inducing them into shock to startle and stabilize their overactive heart rates 'Hashtag potholes save lives,' another added. 'I have seen multiple patients convert from Afib RVR to sinus rhythm just going over the bump going into the elevator. We call it a hillbilly cardioversion,' one Twitter user said. Afib RVR is the medical term for an irregular heartbeat, sinus rhythm means a normal heartbeat. 'We once had a patient convert after the RN [registered nurse] ran the bed into the wall while transferring,' a respiratory specialist on Twitter said. 'As someone who lives with this condition (commonly seen in episodes with AFib or SVT) I can confirm that sometimes a hard stop or driving around and braking really fast will help put the heart back into normal sinus rhythm,' one Facebook user added on Omaha Scanner's post. 'It's actually called "pothole cardioversion" and we'll documented... Similar to a cardiac thump,' another user added, comparing the jolt to a 'cardiac thump', which is a resuscitation method where an EMS worker hits a patient's chest with their first to shock and restart the heart. 'I have converted someone at 80 mph and bump on a bridge works well. Sometimes benefits to crappy roads,' another doctor added on Facebook. All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility