YOU’RE the first doctor at the scene of a ferry disaster. People are being
plucked from the icy sea, apparently dead. No pulse, nothing. But deep cold
protects the brain, so they may still be alive.
Yet you are in a quandary. Warming can revive people with extreme
hypothermia, but it’s risky. If their brain cells warm up before blood starts
flowing, the cells may die from lack of oxygen. Then it really is all over for
the patient. So what do you do?
According to Kyrill Ivanov of the Pavlov Institute of Physiology in St
Petersburg, the answer is…
