UKH

Almost unbelievable story from Spain of a woman caught out in bad conditions, having her heart restarted after 6 hours and making a near full recovery:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50681489

Amazing stuff, and pretty relevant for this forum's users

Truly amazing, and exceptional. Heart surgeon on TV explained they do similar when lowering body temperature before some heart ops. He also said it was unlikely the circulation had completely stopped for that long as after about an hour irreversible brain damage would have set in. He emphasized that most UK hospitals would be unable to divert the circulation to a mechanical pump in the manner required, and one would need to go to a facility for heart ops, ASAP presumably. 

It would be interesting to know how the woman might have been better equipped/prepared for the conditions, and how the rescue services were contacted (phone presumably) and how decisions were made during their response. 

When I saw your thread title I thought you were about to admit that you are Goucho and are posting again...

When I had my collar bone plated I woke up absolutely freezing but AFAIK only an hour or so after the anaesthetist (a climber so I trusted him) gave me the happy juice. They wrapped me up in a sort of duvet with millions of tiny holes that blew hot air all around me from a machine like the Teletubbies noo-noo. It was one of the nicest sensations I've ever experienced in my life. Maybe we should all keep one for emergencies?

The person who I go to for my first aid courses always includes a water section (I work in water and know her from Kayaking). In her words in a drowning situation your not dead until you are warm and dead. Same sort of situation. 

Waking up clinically attached to a noo-noo just became my worst nightmare.

Cold water immersion of the neck and face triggers the “mammalian diving reflex” which pre conditions the body for survival with low oxygen.  I don’t know if the same level of adaption happens in hypothermia. Hopefully someone here does... I’m always amazed by these cold recovery stories - 45 minutes is possible with children in cold water.  

Any kind of rapid cooling reduces the O2 requirement of tissues, especially the brain. 

The warm air duvets are called Bair Huggers. 

"You're not dead until you are warm and dead," is a pretty good mantra in ALL rescue situations where hypothermia or cold could play any role at all.

That's WITH the correct use of the apostrophe, however. No hope for you, otherwise, no matter your core temperature.

There was a brilliant docu-drama on TV about 6-weeks ago, about a north sea saturation diver, who had his umbilical severed and was stuck 100m down with only 5-mins of breathing gas as an emergency back up.  He was recovered maybe 45 mins later (I think) and after mouth-to mouth came round made a ful recovery and back working as a sat diver!

In this case the speculation was a combination of cold and higher than normal oxygen levels as a result of him being saturated. saved his life.

Well worth a watch

Have you watched Last Breath on Netflix? 

Haha I should have read the comments...

There was a research programme a few years back were new born babies at risk of brain injury due to hypoxia were environmental cooled down to 33-34 degrees centigrade before then given brain cooling treatment. There was a control group of paeients who didn't receive this treatment. The results were so positive that the program was cut short as it considered unethical to continue. The practice is now standard practice. Kind of anti-intuitive.🙂

Body temperature was down to 18C and apart from hand/finger dexterity she's fully recovered! Fantastic and unbelievable outcome.

No.  Don't have netflix  - is it on anything else?

Also on the BBC a few days ago:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-50630441/life-after-death-how-seven-k...