Science of Survival: Frozen Alive Redux
Outside Podcast
00:00
The Importance of Warming
In re-warming shock, the constricted capillaries reopen almost all at once, causing a sudden drop in blood pressure. The slightest movement can send a victim's heart muscle into wild spasms of ventricular fibrillation. In 1980, 16 shipwreck Danish fishermen were hauled to safety after an hour and a half in the frigid North Sea. They then walked across the deck of the rescue ship, step below for a hot drink, and drop dead - all 16 of them.
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