INDEPTH: HEALTH
Hypothermia
CBC News Online | July 16, 2004
In February 2001, an amazing thing happened in Edmonton. Thirteen-month-old Erika Nordby, who had crawled outside in the middle of the night and froze, was brought back from being clinically dead.
The girl's toes were frozen together. Her internal body temperature was less than half what it should be. And when the girl finally got to a hospital after being outside an estimated three or four hours, it took a team of more than a dozen medical staff an hour and a half to get her heart beating again.
Three days later, Erika was suffering from severe frostbite, but there were no signs of major physical injury or the brain damage that's expected in someone whose oxygen supply to the brain has been cut off, especially for that amount of time.
No wonder the doctors called it a miracle.
The only explanation the doctors have is that the cold must have slowed the body's metabolism enough so that it didn't require the normal amount of blood flow and brain activity to survive.
Other hypothermia recoveries
Such a recovery from severe hypothermia is rare, but not unheard of.
On Dec. 24, 1991, three-year-old Brittany Eichelberger of Elkins, West Virginia was found in a snowdrift, again clinically dead, two and a half hours after she wandered outside into -3 C weather, wearing only her underwear. Besides having to lose part of a toe, she was left with only a touch of pneumonia and a temporarily weakened arm.
On Feb. 23, 1994, two-year-old Karlee Kosolofski got locked outside at 2:30 a.m. when she tried to follow her father to work. The temperature in Rouleau, Saskatchewan that night dropped as low as -22 C and she was wearing only her winter coat and boots over her pajamas.
When she was found six hours later, her body was almost frozen solid. John Burgess, one of the doctors who helped revive the girl at Regina's Plains Hospital, said her legs were "frozen like blocks of ice." The frostbite meant her left leg had to be amputated and her right leg was badly scarred. She also had to have some bone surgeries and skin grafts.
But she survived.
The story of Karlee Kosolofski made headlines worldwide. No one had ever survived a body temperature as low as 14 C.
Coincidentally, the first paramedic on the scene in Edmonton was also the first paramedic on the scene with Karlee Kosolofski. Paramedic Krista Rempel says her first experience definitely helped her get through the second one.
Karlee Kosolofski remains in the Guinness Book of World Records for surviving the lowest authenticated body temperature (14.16 C).
Hypothermia made first heart transplant possible
When it comes to Canada's hypothermia claim to fame, Karlee Kosolofski isn't the only name people think of. There's also Wilfred Gordon Bigelow.
Wilfred Bigelow, who was born in Brandon, Man., in 1913, first became interested in hypothermia in 1941. Bigelow was working as a resident surgeon at Toronto General Hospital when he treated a young man for frostbite and had to amputate his gangrenous fingers. The experience made him wonder aloud why in Canada, of all places, there was so little known about frostbite – and it began what would become 18 years of research into hypothermia.
In 1950, Bigelow made a discovery that went against standard medical practice. He found how to safely lower the body's need for oxygen by lowering the body's core temperature. On its own it doesn't sound like much, but the technique was intended to make the first open-heart surgery possible – and it succeeded.
Before that, the standard belief was that a drop in body temperature during surgery or even the treatment of an injury was something to be carefully avoided.
Bigelow is actually known for two major scientific achievements. In addition to his work in hypothermia, he helped develop the first artificial pacemaker in the early 1950s. Although the invention was essentially shelved for almost a decade because of its size – it was about as big as a toaster oven – it made way for the smaller, implantable pacemaker. Together these discoveries revolutionized heart surgery and have helped millions of people with heart disease.
The idea that people can survive low body temperatures is the basis of cryonics.
Cryonics is a field of cryogenics, the study of how materials behave when they get colder. Among other things, cryogenics helps in the construction of spacecraft, which takes into account the fact that at low temperatures the main gases that make up air – oxygen and nitrogen – turn into liquids. Liquid oxygen is used in rocket propulsion and liquid nitrogen is used as a coolant.
Cryonics deals with people, or more specifically how to freeze people into a state of suspended animation. The hope is that patients who can no longer be kept alive with current medical science could be unfrozen in the future after new cures or treatments have been discovered.
But cryonics is still science fiction. Although people have been frozen shortly after death, scientists have yet to bring one of them back to life.
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The standard body temperature is 37 C.
Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature of 35 C (95 F) or lower and should be treated as a medical emergency.
Severe hypothermia occurs when the core body temperature drops below 32 C. People with severe hypothermia may appear dead.
In 1995, 91 Canadians died of hypothermia, according to the Canadian Medical Association.
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| NEWS ARCHIVE: |
Toronto police charge mom of 'miracle baby' (Jan. 27, 2003)
Toronto police find mother of 'miracle baby' (Jan. 26, 2003)
Teen who survived three days in bush now faces amputation (Dec. 31, 2002)
Teen found after three days lost in New Brunswick woods (Dec. 30, 2002)
Full recovery possible for toddler found in frigid water (April 17, 2001)
Baby Erika goes home (March 30, 2001)
Baby Erika gets skin graft for frostbitten toes (March 25, 2001)
Coast Guard crewmen killed in Niagara River (March 24, 2001)
Frozen U.S. boy makes remarkable recovery (March 21, 2001)
Baby Erika may soon head home: doctors (March 16, 2001)
Edmonton toddler needs surgery on frostbitten feet (March 11, 2001)
Doctors say Baby Erika will walk again (March 1, 2001)
Wisconsin toddler found outside in sub-zero weather (Feb. 28, 2001)
Baby Erika 'doing terrific' as mother recalls ordeal (Feb. 27, 2001)
Toddler's 'incredible' will spurs recovery (Feb. 26, 2001)
Frozen toddler's recovery a 'miracle': doctors (Feb. 25, 2001)
Frozen Alberta toddler clears first hurdle: doctors (Feb. 24, 2001)
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