X-Message-Number: 15742
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 13:08:16 -0800
From: Olaf Henny <>
Subject: Toddler, Partially "Frozen Solid" Survives
References: <>

Article in The Province  (Vancouver)

Edmonton (Alberta, Canada) - Doctors in Edmonton are working to
save a one year old girl who was frozen almost solid, when she
slipped outside before dawn yesterday.
   Edmonton police say the child, who has not been identified,
was sleeping with her mother at a friends house, when she
apparently got out of bed and wandered outside into the backyard
of a home in northeast Edmonton.
   The mother awoke at about 3 a.m. to find her daughter
missing and, after a frantic search, found her about 45 minutes
later.
   A police detective said the baby was  frozen solid , when
she was discovered.  No one knows how long she was outside in the
-20^ C (- 4^ F)cold, clad only in a diaper, but when the infant
arrived in hospital, she had no vital signs.
    She wasn t breathing  said Dr. Allan De Caen, a pediatric
intensive care specialist at Stollery Children s Hospital.   She
didn t have any pulse .  She looked dead. 
   The child s toes were frozen together.  Her body temperature
was 16^ C, less than half the body s normal temperature of 37^ C.
   Paramedics had difficulty getting a breathing tube into the
child s throat, because her mouth was frozen shut.  But they tied
to resuscitate her and in hospital 90 minutes later, she had
warmed a couple of degrees and her heart started beating on its
own.
    Within a couple of hours she was opening her eyes and
moving around, acting like a very sick one year old, but clearly
dramatically better than she had been,  said Dr. De Caen.
    She is a very lucky girl.   He said the next 12 to 24 hours
would be critical to her recovery.
    We are not looking at this as a case of child abuse, but as a
tragedy,  said a provincial health official.
   De Caen said, the baby s family can take some solace from
the case of Karlee Kosolofski.
   Karlee, 2, was inadvertently locked out of her parents  home
in Roleau, Saskatchewan in February 1994 for six hours, after she
followed her father out the door , as he went to work.  She was
clinically dead, when she arrived at the hospital and both her
legs were nearly frozen solid, but she survived.  - CP

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15742