Heart Failure

A man who’s been a friend of mine since childhood had a massive heart attack a few weeks ago.  He’s going to be okay, he’s recovering nicely.  When it was happening, his wife frantically drove him to the closest hospital emergency room and while he was there, he totally “flat lined”, as the saying goes.  The doctor on duty electro-shocked him and eventually brought him back but it took six tries.  Here’s the question he had, when we were talking about the situation afterwards.  Who made the decision to go for number six, when the first five had failed?  Would there have been a seventh attempt? And how do you adequately thank someone for giving it just one more try?