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.
