Clinical Death - Hypothermia During Clinical Death

Hypothermia During Clinical Death

Reduced body temperature, or therapeutic hypothermia, during clinical death slows the rate of injury accumulation, and extends the time period during which clinical death can be survived. The decrease in the rate of injury can be approximated by the Q₁₀ rule, which states that the rate of biochemical reactions decreases by a factor of two for every 10°C reduction in temperature. As a result, humans can sometimes survive periods of clinical death exceeding one hour at temperatures below −20°C. The prognosis is improved if clinical death is caused by hypothermia rather than occurring prior to it; in 1999, 29-year-old Swedish woman Anna Bågenholm spent 80 minutes trapped in ice and survived with full recovery from a 13.7°C core body temperature. It is said in emergency medicine that "nobody is dead until they are warm and dead." In animal studies, up to three hours of clinical death can be survived at temperatures near 0°C.