Will this cutting-edge procedure work?

Question

A few years ago, I heard someone's body temperature fell to 56 degrees F and was unconscious for 40 minutes but was revived successfully. I also heard last year that one hospital is tryind a new procedure where they decrease your body temperature to stop your heart on a procedure to remove a brain anuerism. At the end, you will be revived and re-heated. This is experimental and it might be a discovery, which is if your body temperature is very low, your brain is protected, you need less oxygen to survive, you can last longer w/o CPR, and the chances of revival are a lot higher. You would also be hooked up to an EEG to avoid brain death. You might still have brain waves even if the heart has stopped. This will probably be controversial as well.

Answer 1

Deep hypothermic arrest is not new. It's been around since at least 1971.

Here's a good article on the subject. Scroll down to the hypothermia section (section 7):
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic2813.htm

I've never done it personally. I try to avoid ALL cases with heart stoppage, regardless of temperature.

Answer 2

The problem is not stopping the heart, but maintaining adequate oxygen to the brain. Lowering the body temperature causes the body's cells to use less oxygen. A simple heart bypass machine will do the same thing, although it increases the risk of clots, among other things.

New research (see this month's Time Magazine) is showing that the brain cells don't die as fast as was thought, and that it is the introduction of oxygen into the bloodstream that triggers apoptosis in heart attack victims and others. The secret is to lower body temperature and reintroduce oxygen very slowly. This new approach may almost eliminate immediate death from heart attacks or anoxia.

Answer 3

Sounds like hibernation. Some animals stay frozen all winter and then the sun thaws them out and they wake up again just fine. I have seen it on TV - a frog frozen and they sped up the process to show how he is thawed out and just hops away. Amazing - I don't see why it wouldn't work with humans.