A 4 years old child broke through the ice of the frozen lake. He was rescued from the water and transported to the hospital by a helicopter.
Initial findings:
- no heart rhythm
- nonreacting pupils
- core body temperature 19.8 °C (68 °F)
He was in cardiac arrest for 88 minutes and then successfully resuscitated (with some complications - acute respiratory distress syndrome - but recovered fully).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10155409
Whole body cooling for 72 hours was associated with less brain damage in infants who suffered from brain ischemic injury during delivery compared with no cooling.
http://www.nature.com/pr/journal/v71/n1/full/pr20118a.html
Cerebral hypothermia can safely improve intact survival in term infants with neonatal encephalopathy.
Beneficial effects of hypothermia:
- Decrease of basal metabolic rate (~7% for each °C), which means lower oxygen consumption in the cells and therefore prolonged cell survival when the oxygen delivery to the cells is impaired
- Slowed inflammation process
http://ceaccp.oxfordjournals.org/content/6/1/23.full
From the same source (oxfordjournals.org) from y.2006:
"The admission body temperature seems to be a major determinant for long-term mortality after stroke. They concluded that ‘hypothermic therapy in the early stage, in which body temperature is kept low for a longer period after stroke onset, could be a long-lasting neuroprotective measure’. Since then, there have been numerous animal models and some preliminary studies but no conclusive results. The Cochrane review stated that further trials were indicated."
Here's another short story. A woman was clinically dead (no heart rhythm, no breathing). Paramedics used the Arctic Sun technology (they wrapped her in some sort of "cloth" that can be filled with a cold fluid) and thus induced hypothermia. The woman has survived. Practically no technical data (time, woman's age, the underlying disease - supposedly heart arrhythmia...) are provided, though.
http://www.uihealthcare.org/2column.aspx?id=21985&side=22038