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Ice water drowning survival of young patient (2025)
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- Cold water drowning survival depends on rapid cooling: children survive better than adults due to higher surface-to-mass ratio and less subcutaneous fat enabling faster core temperature drop.
- The critical threshold is water temperature ≤6°C (43°F) with submersion ≤30 minutes; warmer or longer submersion dramatically reduces survival chances.
- Resuscitation follows the principle 'not dead until warm and dead'—patients must be rewarmed before declaring death, as hypothermia can preserve organ function.
- Asystole (flatline) cannot be treated with defibrillation/shocking; it requires CPR and rewarming, unlike shockable rhythms such as ventricular fibrillation.
- Hypothermic drowning survivors often sustain significant neurological damage even when successfully revived, indicating preservation of life does not mean full recovery.
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Not the same thing of course but when our cat got sick with blood parasite, her blood turned to very diluted cranberry juice color and the body temperature dropped to almost room temperature(38C is the normal for cats) and the vet was double and triple checking the readings because it didn't make sense still being alive. After a few hours we were able to arrange a blood infusion and intensive care and by the morning she was "fine". By "fine" I mean alive, for months her character was much diff…Read on HN ↗
Something similar happened recently in Norway. A tourist was found severely cold in the mountains, in a storm where extracting him took hours. After a while hypothermia got to him, his heart stopped, and only 8 hours later they got it starting again, was technically dead for 20 hours. In this case, it looks to have gone well with the person afterwards. They say you're not dead until you're warm and dead. News article https://www-nrk-no.translate.goog/vestland/nye-tal_-turgaare... Recount of t…Read on HN ↗
If a patient has "sequelae of hypoxic ischemic changes" in their brain like in this case, that means a significant amount of their brain cells have died. The surviving brain cells may or may not be able to take over some of the function of the dead ones, but I'm not aware of any current or future technology that can significantly improve the chances of a positive outcome here. Then again, I agree with you on principle: if such a patient is brought into the ER, the Hippocratic Oath compels docto…Read on HN ↗
spuz4.8k karma
The article describes their decision making process: > As rescue divers searched for the boy's body, we deliberated whether to attempt resuscitation and likelihood of meaningful neurologic recovery of a child submerged for at least 90 minutes. We reviewed literature for guidance2-4,6 and drew from institutional experience with a 2-year-old submerged in ice water for 40 minutes who received 101 minutes of CPR.3 The toddler recovered with no sequelae. For our current patient, the decision was mad…Read on HN ↗