In early 1974, many news agencies reported an extraordinary incident involving a 5-year-old boy, Vegard Slettemuen from Lilleström, Norway. While playing, he went out onto the ice of the river, fell through and drowned. Only after 40 minutes the scuba divers took the child's body out of the water.
And 20 minutes later, when the doctors, almost not hoping for success, began to do artificial respiration and open heart massage, the baby showed signs of life. Vegard was unconscious for two days, and then he opened his eyes and asked: "Where are my glasses?" Almost an hour's state of clinical death did not cause any disturbances in the activity of the brain.
This fact, unique in the history of medicine, caused a real sensation among specialists, because it was believed that the period of stay of a drowned under water, after which revival is practically still possible, fluctuates within 6-12 minutes. Even if it was occasionally possible after this period to return a person to life, he received irreversible brain damage.
What's the matter, how to explain this phenomenon? The head physician of the Akershnius central hospital, Bjorn Lind, commenting on this fantastic revival, suggested that the boy was saved by severe hypothermia (temperature drop) - the water he got into did not exceed +3 ° C.
Hypothermia reduces the body's need for oxygen, with the result that irreversible brain damage occurs much later. However, this hypothesis did not satisfy medical specialists, since it did not fully explain Vegard's miraculous return to life. They continued to search for the truth, and finally the mystery of the mysterious revival was solved.
Diving reflex
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In March 1975, 18-year-old American Brian Cunningham fell through the ice with his car. Almost 38 minutes he was under water, but nevertheless, thanks to many hours of efforts of doctors who fought for the life of the young man, he was saved. Scientist Martin Nemiro from the University of Michigan (USA) became interested in this unusual incident. He managed to establish that a drowned person who had been under water for a dangerously long time was helped to return from oblivion by two factors: a diving reflex and moderately cold water, the temperature of which is below +21 ° C.
Dr. Martin Nemiro explains this as follows. Reflex holding of breath when immersed in cold water causes in a person the phenomenon of slowed heart activity, in other words, bradycardia. It happens automatically, because it is also called the diving reflex. At the same time, the remaining oxygenated blood ceases to flow to the cooled skin tissues, skeletal muscles and other organs that are able to endure a “starvation ration” for a long time without harm.
It all rushes to the vital centers of a person - the brain and heart. The cells of the latter do not die in this mode within several tens of minutes!
The adaptive value of the diving reflex is fully manifested in diving marine mammals. In seals, for example, the heart rate when swimming underwater is only 20% of the baseline. Due to this, the animal, having approximately the same supply of oxygen in the body as a person, can stay under water for 10-15 minutes.
The discovery made by an American scientist radically changed the approach to providing emergency care to people drowned in cold water. Indeed, lately it has helped doctors save other “hopeless” victims from seemingly inevitable death.
On a frosty February day in 1984, while sledding on frozen Lake Michigan, 4-year-old Jimmy fell through the ice. Terrence Totlevich, the boy's father, threw himself into the icy water, but could not find his son. The boy was pulled out only after half an hour. He had no breathing, no heartbeat was recorded. However, Jimmy is still alive!
Doctors from the Chicago Children's Hospital, who saved the child, commenting on this case on the pages of the American magazine "United States News of the World Report", said that the newly discovered diving reflex and cold helped them to bring the baby back to life. "These two factors," concludes Cleveland professor Carold Rickate, "helped to save the boy in the first phase."
It is interesting to note that, according to the Philadelphia physician Michael Devinson, the phenomenon of bradycardia, which was transmitted by diving mammals to humans through the evolutionary chain, is especially strongly preserved in children.
Jimmy was in the hospital for three months
- And after discharge, - said the boy's mother Katie Totlevich, - he had to learn everything from the very beginning: to speak, walk and even eat.
But now, according to the US magazine United States News of the World Report, published in early 1985, everything is in order: Jimmy was in his sixth year, went to kindergarten and attended the swimming section.
Misty the dolphin
An even more incredible case of rescuing a drowned man occurred at the end of 1983 ("Domenica del Coriere", Italy).
Misty Densmore, 3, was on a wrecked fishing boat. Her uncle died, her mother held out on the water until she was rescued, and little Misty went like a stone to the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska, where she was without breathing for more than 30 minutes. Nevertheless, she remained alive! The girl's mother, Andy Densmore, did not find any explanation for this and simply noted that it was a "miracle".
“When a huge wave flooded the ship and we were carried out to sea,” said the mother, “I grabbed my hand over the side of a boat, and with the other I hugged my daughter, trying to keep her higher, above the water. But a new wave tore the baby out of my hands. I saw Misty open her mouth wide and inhale a large portion of air.
Rescuers arrived at the scene of the accident near the coast of Kodiak Island (Alaska). The doctor assisting the girl was able to bring her back to life with prolonged mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration. Opening her eyes, the baby asked: “Where is my mother? What happened? " After a happy revival, the girl on the island began to be called "dolphin".
As Martin Nemiro later explained this phenomenal case, the diving reflex also saved the girl. However, in the future, this in its own way beautiful and seemingly sound hypothesis from all sides was not confirmed.
The thing is that the pathological processes occurring in the body during drowning differ from those that take place during a voluntary diving with a breath holding under water. Why, then, is drowning in cold water associated with greater resuscitation survival, even after prolonged submersion?
Scientists concluded that this result is due to the rapid cooling of the body and a concomitant decrease in the level of metabolic processes in an unconscious person. To describe this phenomenon, the researchers Cohn and Barker coined the term "acute subimmersion hypothermia syndrome." If cooling is the main reason for the increased survival rate of survivors after drowning in cold water, it can be assumed that the smaller body size of the child contributes to faster cooling of the body and prolonged survival time than in an adult under the same conditions.
An hour and a half of clinical death
In conclusion, we present a stunning case of an incredibly long stay of a person in a state of clinical death. On March 21, 1996, 32-year-old car dealer Ward Krenz from Clear Aake, Iowa, was driving snowmobiles with friends on the ice of a frozen lake. Suddenly, a severe blizzard began. In search of shelter, the people turned back, but Ward lost sight of his comrades, lost his way, and his car was in a hole.
“At the speed at which I was racing,” the participant of the incredible adventure himself later said, “I flew into the wormwood twenty meters from its edge. I only had time to see how the headlights of the snowmobile disappeared under the water, and then everything plunged steeply into absolute darkness. The water was incredibly cold. My muscles immediately turned to stone, and I could not swim. I thought: "No, I will not die, I have my whole life ahead of me." But the water was icy, I was absolutely numb and could not move. Soon everything suddenly seemed to me quiet and calm, and then I went under the water."
Members of the volunteer squad, who arrived at the scene, spent 45 minutes trying to find the missing Ward Krenz, lighting their way with flashlights. Finally, they saw a black object in the water. It turned out to be a shockproof helmet worn over Ward's head. The body of the drowned man was under water in an upright position. The mouth, nose and entire face were under water, and only the air collected inside the helmet prevented it from sinking into the depths.
By the time rescuers removed Krenz from the ice pool, he had been underwater for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
“When he was taken to our hospital,” said Dr. Dorothy Laws, “he had no breathing and no heartbeat, and his body temperature dropped to 24 °, and we had little hope of saving him. The victim was connected to a machine that is usually used for heart surgery: his blood was heated to the required temperature and returned to the tissues already saturated with oxygen. Ward was in a state of near death for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes until his heart began to beat again."
After that, for another three days he did not regain consciousness, and the doctors began to think that due to the prolonged stay without oxygen, the brain was affected. However, everything turned out as well as possible. Ward Krenz left the hospital after 13 days completely healthy.
“Due to the very rapid drop in body temperature, the metabolism has completely stopped,” says Dr. Loz. "In this state, his brain did not need oxygen, it was kind of turned off for a while."
The victim himself said: “I'm so happy! After all, not everyone managed to visit the other world and come back …"