A Couple Degrees From Death

Today I read an artic in the Star Tribune called “Duluth woman lost in cold was 'like a corpse’” It was about a 64 year old woman from Duluth that was stuck in the snow for four hours before she was found with a body temperature of only 60 degrees. Janice Goodger was watching her daughter’s dog when she slipped on a patch of ice in the backyard; she was too weak to get up so she wrapped a scarf around her legs and pit her body inside her coat to keep warm. As the hours went on Janice’s body temperature continued to drop. When she was found by her daughter she was breathing but her heart was barely beating. When the paramedics arrived they discovered she was in a Hypothermia induced cardiac arrest and if they touched her she could die. When Janice arrived in the hospital Dr. Chris Delp said "She was ice cold, She felt, literally, like a corpse." In order to save the woman’s life they needed to go through intensive steps including sending warm air into her body though a tube. Removing her blood, heating it up, and pulling it back in her. After that they shocked her back to life with an A.E.D. To everyone’s surprise Janice is already back at home and the only think that was taken away from Janice was her ability to yell.