March is usually the month when winter loosens its frozen grip, but in the Siberian Far East, March nights are colder than most places around the world. With temperatures dropping to -20° Celsius (-4° Fahrenheit) at night, Russia’s Yakutia Region is definitely not the place you want to be caught outdoors for long periods of time, without proper clothes.
One Russian man recently found out just how dangerous March nights can be in Yakutia. The unnamed man was walking to his home in the city of Mirny after a long night on the town when he got tired and decided to rest on a bench on the side of the street. It’s unclear if the man was intoxicated or not, but what we do know is that he fell asleep on the bench.
The sleeping man was first found by passers-by who realised the danger he was in and called emergency services. Unfortunately, by the time the ambulance arrived, the man no longer had a pulse, his blood pressure was zero, and the electrocardiogram showed a flat line. Resuscitation procedures were carried out, but there was no response.
Photo: Google AI
First responders took the clinically dead man to the local hospital, where anesthesiologist and resuscitation specialist Dmitry Bosikov was tasked with slowly thawing the patient back to life. By gradually “defrosting” the patient, he ensured that no damage was caused to the smallest blood vessels, as damaged vascular microcirculation can cause heart attacks, cerebral edema, kidney failure and death.
Over the course of four hours, the man’s body temperature slowly rose from 24 to 34 degrees Celsius, at which point advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation was initiated. After about 25 minutes, the medical team saw the first sign of life, a faint pulse on the monitor.
After 5 hours and 34 minutes, the man’s vitals appeared stable, but he was left in an induced coma for a day. He regained consciousness the next day, and tests showed that his kidneys and his other vital functions were intact. He received medical care and treatment for five days, after which he was discharged.
