Cold Doesn't Always Mean Dead
You can freeze to death and still live to tell about it.
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If you worry about exposure to cold, take heart: You can freeze to death and still live to tell about it. In May 2000, 29-year-old Anna Bagenholm slipped while skiing and ended up head down, wedged between ice and rock in a waterfall near Narvik, Norway.
As friends tried to free her, Bagenholm struggled for 40 minutes, then hung limp for 40 minutes more. CPR was initiated when her pulseless, breathless, clinically dead body was finally recovered. A core temperature of 57ºF was recorded in the hospital, where resuscitative efforts continued for 9 hours.
Miraculously, Bagenholm eventually walked out of the hospital without brain damage. Despite losing some function in her hands, she returned to skiing and holds the world record for recovery from hypothermia to the lowest core temperature.