logoalt Hacker News

matsemanntoday at 7:05 AM6 repliesview 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 the story https://www-nrk-no.translate.goog/vestland/xl/turgaaren-var-...


Replies

xattttoday at 9:59 AM

Interesting to see that he was actively worked on for hours and hours. This is a very dedicated team, with significant awareness of hypothermia recovery.

It wouldn’t as much as an internist with too long of a day to call it after the third code.

show 1 reply
lukantoday at 7:07 AM

"They say you're not dead until you're warm and dead."

Actual mountain rescuer slogan/wisdom.

Qemtoday at 2:51 PM

I wonder if such cases are a gift from our Neanderthal forebears, from the few % of Neanderthal DNA that still lingers in most humans alive today. They spent hundreds of thousands of years amidst ice age glaciers, what are the odds they developed the ability to hibernate? It would be a good explanation on how H. Sapiens Sapiens took over later. They couldn't defend their shelters while in torpor.

vorticalboxtoday at 5:26 PM

> This happened after he received CPR for several hours at a cabin on the Hardangervidda plateau before rescue arrived.

This means although his heart wasn’t technically beating, he did have blood being circulated via cpr.

When I read the title I assumed he was alone before rescuing.

internet_pointstoday at 7:34 AM

I was also reminded of this :)

Direct link to the write-up of the previous such record: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01960...

dzhiurgistoday at 7:24 AM

Wonder at which point we'll start adding PLB / airtags to clothing themselves. Decent jacket already cost way more than electronics. Satellite communications approaching cost of 0. If you venturing somewhere risky - kinda makes sense to have PLB built in.