X-Message-Number: 13154 Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 21:12:28 -0800 (PST) From: Driven FromThePack <> Subject: "Dead" woman revived This is an excerpt from: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000127/sc/health_freeze_1.html Norwegian Returns to Life After Severe Hypothermia By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - A Norwegian woman whose body temperature dropped to 56.7 F in a skiing accident was brought back to life after she was thawed, doctors said Friday. The unidentified 29-year-old skier, who was clinically dead, is the only known person to have survived after such severe hypothermia. ``As far as we know it is the lowest body temperature of anybody who has survived from being dead and cold -- 13.7 degrees (56.7 F). There are no other reports as low as that,'' Dr Mads Gilbert, of Tromso University Hospital in Norway, told Reuters. The previous lowest body temperature that anyone survived was 57.92 F recorded in a child. Less than a third of adults whose body temperature drops below 82.40 F recover. ``I would describe the case as a new confirmation that we should never give up in cases were people are cooled down. They should be warmed up before you declare them dead,'' Gilbert said. ...... ``She was clinically dead for a couple of hours,'' said Gilbert, one of dozens of doctors who has treated her since the accident last May. Writing in the Lancet medical journal, Gilbert and his colleagues described how the woman fell while skiing down a waterfall gully. She was wedged between rock and overhanging ice for 40 minutes in a space continually flooded with icy water. ..... Although she was not breathing and had no circulation by the time she reached the hospital, doctors used a cardiopulmonary bypass to remove her blood, warm it outside the body, and then return it to the body. Gilbert said the icy water cooled her body to the point where her heart had stopped. It also cooled her brain enough so it could sustain a long period without oxygen supply. ``The sequence of cooling in this particular case probably is one of the key factors for this extremely good result,'' he said. The woman has no recollection of the accident. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13154