Freezing to death, but surviving thanks to the cold
Skier in Norway went through the ice and died. But thanks to the extreme cold she was resurrected 2 hours(!) later.
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5. lockandload 2 years ago
that woman owes her life to that doctor, good work! couldve ended up much worse 
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6. Comment rated too low. Show this comment Dazzz69 2 years ago
Two words.......Final Destination. 
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7. juanPzamora 2 years ago
i want to know what she experienced in those 2 hours.. 
if she remember anything at all it could be interesting
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I remember something like - if the brain will get no oxygen for 5 min, you will get brain damage and will become a disabled person. But some how the cold stops the damage. Any care to explain? Many questions about this case.
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#8 I don't know much, but i do know that the low temperatures prevents your cells from dying so that's why her brain wasn´t damaged.
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10. Comment rated too low. Show this comment badboy007 2 years ago
Well the story of the abobniable snow man comes to mind
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11. Sizzlik (admin) 2 years ago
one word...amazing...more words..she got a damn strong heart and willing to survive..i bet that gave new power to the science of freezing people for the later times (kyrotech or whatever its called)
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Cryogenics #11 . The problem with Cryogenics is that freezing cells expands the water inside them and ruptures their structure.
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I can explain medically/or physically how this works. -sorry it's long, if you don't care just skip it, but it's cool.
First, I will explain why the body needs to maintain about 37 degrees (98.6F)
Then I will explain what happens at a cellular level when it cools down to almost freezing.
1st: The body needs to maintain a certain temperature in order to carry out metabolic activity.
A couple things your body does that is affected by temperature:
-The body converts food, into storage by using enzymes. ie: carbohydrates (plants) into glucose (sugar molecules). (stored as glycogen in the liver)
-Synthesis of molecules. (the making of building block, enzymes, energy molecules, and many other things.)
One of the most important things that is happening in your body, is the process of MAKING ENERGY for cell work.
It's like a factory that makes energy from the food we eat. When the energy molecules are made, there are a lot of extra parts left over. One of the biggest byproducts of metabolic activity is carbon dioxide (CO2). (BTW, CO2 is from the food we eat, not the air we breath)
When the gas, CO2, is made, it is toxic to the cells in your body. You get rid of the CO2 by your blood. The blood carries it to your lungs and you exhale it. (When you go running, more energy molecules are needed, and synthesized, hence, more CO2 is produced which needs to be exhaled quicker). -also, this conversion process releases energy in the form of heat, that's why we get hot when we run.
(will continue comment in my next post, too long for one post)
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18. Hollowpoint 2 years ago
Twisted facts and bad images from the BBC. This happened in Narvik. (Dark hole).
And she fell between the ice and rock in a small waterfall, NOT under water! She hung upside down clamped while she was sprinkled with water. Her friends, who are also doctors and help crews spent several hours to get her loose. When they got her loose, she was unconscious. The helicopter transported her to Tromsø while her friends gave her a heart massage and lifesaving first aid. Amazingly, she survived! Amazingly bad report from the BBC and only film from Tromsø 240 Km away! One photo from the accident site. Why in the H.. is the reporter flying around in Tromsø??? Maybe he enjoy flying :-) :-)
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2nd: Ok, now on to the cold:
During this conversion process the enzymes have to stay at a certain temp, or they do not make energy. This also means that they no longer make CO2 (nothing toxic to exhale now). In addition, they don't need oxygen (oxygen is used in the energy conversion process). -No metabolic work, means they don't need O2, and don't need to get rid of CO2. The cell can now just relax and do nothing. This does not mean that it is dead, just barely active. As long as the stuff inside the cell does not dissolve, theoretically, it should last indefinitely.
-When the cells warm up to the correct temperature, they will resume full function.
In the case of a humans being cooled down like this, the metabolic activity is only slowed down. It is not stopped. The CO2 will not reach toxic levels for very long periods of time. An example of an enzyme at work like this, is in the making of bread. When the yeast is making chemical changes, the byproduct is CO2, the gas then is trapped in little pockets in the dough, this is why bread is fluffy. The yeast is best active at about 95-104 degrees F. If it's too hot, the yeast is killed (enzyme's shaped is changed). Frozen, and it will still work when it is warmed up.
#13 is right, that's why this only works with 'almost' freezing.
-I heard of a guy being underwater for 4 hours.
This is very rare, but it does happen. Some places in the world preform surgery's simply by cooling people down to a point where there is minimal metabolic activity, enough to where the body is not starving for oxygen, therefore, tissues will not die quickly.
NOTE: This is also why they say to put severed limbs into ice cold water. -It preserves the limb (sorry, gross, I know)
Last Note: If you rescue a lifeless person from the water, warm them up SLOWLY, and continue chest compressions to keep the blood flowing. -or from the snow, or anywhere cold. A saying from Search and Rescue, "They are not dead, unless they are warm and dead".
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BBC 2 Horizon makes some of the best documentaries in the world. Nice to see this story has a happy ending instead of the doomy gloomy news we see everyday 
Another thing is that it's becoming more common these days to cool the brain during extended neurosurgery to minimise brain damage and this is done by actually cooling the blood (passing it through a bypass machine), very similar to what happened to this gal before her heart stopped beating for those +2 hours.
(121 votes)
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1. Geekster (moderator) 2 years ago
Impressive !