Unbelievable. Typically an oxygen starved brain can be permanently destroyed in minutes, like alone more than half an hour. Just shows that what we think are limits to human capacity are more just experienced we've had until now. Very inspiring.
Brain death actually occurs at the time of resuscitation. As it wakes individual cells kill themselves as a result of a kind of "self check." If you cool the brain before resuscitation you can hopefully delay the self check to the point where the cells are correctly oxygenated and healthy when it happens.
Dying somewhere cold cools your brain, giving you a better chance when you are resuscitated.
That's fascinating, could you point me somewhere I can read more? I'd always assumed something in the cells was decaying without oxygen preventing them from functioning again. Is it some sort of reaction byproduct that normally is part of a chain but the lack of oxygen breaks the chain and makes some other reaction occur?
This reminds me of a medical technique that was going into trials I read about on HN last year, I can't find the conversation link but this article in the nytimes is speaking to the same topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/10/health/a-chilling-medical-...
It was used quite successfully recently (which is how I learnt about it), but I can't for the life of me find the link. A technically brain dead patient was bought back to life with little brain damage.
I suspect the boy was saved by the mammalian diving reflex. It is what allows whales to hold their breath for so long. It exists in a much weaker form in humans especially young ones. It kicks in when the face is submerged in cold water. 40 minutes is certainly at the high end but this isnt unprecedented
It's fairly well known that submersion in cold water can lead to recoveries after periods of time far longer than would be expected in other circumstances.
