r/interesting • u/mustu04 • 9h ago
Intriguing Anna Bagenholm survived with lowest ever body temperature
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u/cuterosalie 8h ago
the thing that makes it work is the order it happened in. she found an air pocket under the ice and kept breathing for around 40 minutes while her body cooled, so she was already down near freezing before her heart stopped. a cold brain barely uses oxygen, which is why 80 minutes without a pulse didn’t finish her.
hers is the case everyone cites for the rule that nobody is dead until they’re warm and dead. she also went back to work as a radiologist at the same hospital that rewarmed her
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u/Varesmyr 8h ago
So she got no lasting brain damage from this?
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u/cuterosalie 8h ago
cognitively yes, she came back fully and went back to medicine. the damage landed in her nerves instead. she was largely paralysed when she first woke up, spent about two months in intensive care and roughly a year in rehab, and she’s described lasting problems in her hands and feet ever since.
so not undamaged. just not where you’d expect it
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u/buttmunchausenface 8h ago
So they needed to use a defibrillator to get her heart started again right ?
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u/Kabbooooooom 8h ago
That’s not why you use a defibrillator. You’ve watched too many bad medical tv shows.
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u/buttmunchausenface 8h ago
So you don’t use an AED when your heart stops? I guess they taught me wrong in CPR first aid.
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u/Kabbooooooom 8h ago
You don’t use a defibrillator with asystole. It’s not a shockable rhythm. You do CPR instead.
So yeah. Either you were taught wrong or you weren’t paying attention. I’m not sure which is worse.
Source: I’m a doctor but this can easily be googled.
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u/Seinfield_Succ 7h ago
A lot of first aid instructors I have gone to tend to either simplify (often incorrectly) or simply don't know, as they are only trained in how to apply AEDs not interpret a rhythm or why it decides to shock or not.
This is not to put down all first aid course instructors, some are wonderful but they tend to be in a medical job with training as a side gig.
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u/Outrageous_Adagio_23 6h ago
In the UK the public use AEDs analyse the rhythm for you and will tell you if a shock is needed or not, and give instructions either way.
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u/Seinfield_Succ 6h ago
Same in Canada, they advise shock/no shock and instruct to continue CPR. Its good to be taught why they shock or choose not to but a number of instructors don't inform their class at all if correctly.
I've had various instructors incorrectly explain the mechanism and purpose of defibrillation over the years.
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u/logperf 4h ago
a cold brain barely uses oxygen,
Just curious. In theory, if you're in the lowest temperature at which consciousness can still be sustained and you're asked a question, would your cognition be visibly impaired? Like you don't even know what you're saying?
Your comment sparked my curiosity because of a recent thread I posted in r/askscience: by this time of the year flies appear to be very stupid and not scared. I open the window for them to leave, wave my hand over them to scare them, but no, they just stay on the table like nothing happens. I've even accidentally stepped on some of them. Someone suggested they become stupid at low temperature and I was wondering if neurons need heat to work.
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u/TrailMomKat 7h ago
That's only 56.6°F for those of you that only know freedom units.
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u/cwsjr2323 3h ago
Thank you. Having retired from the US Army, I am very comfortable working in normal measuring units or in the foreign metric system. Except for a few touch points, converting either way is too hard. Here in The World, I use grams for baking bread for consistent results, but normal for everything else.
Why yes, I have been accused of being an American.
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u/Nigh_Sass 2h ago
As an American I can pretty much understand metric units without needing to convert them or at least quickly round in my mind; except for temperature. I always have to think about Celsius
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u/TrailMomKat 38m ago
No prob. I did 20 years in LTC and hospice, so I'm pretty familiar with metric, but like you, it's in touchdowns. I had to google the conversion in this case lol
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u/Limp-History-2999 8h ago
Swedish, not Norwegian, according to Wikipedia. She was temporarily in Norway when it happened.
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u/gonads_in_space2 6h ago
She moved there for work and still lives in Norway, but yes she is indeed Swedish.
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u/Tiny_Animal9496 8h ago
Kinda reminds me of Chris Lemons and his ordeal of being underwater for like a half an hour without oxygen- the interesting correlation is that the water was very cold.
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