DailyDirt: Bringing Back The Undead
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Nature has a few examples of animals coming back to life after appearing to be dead — and not just pretending to be dead, but actually surviving a state of very low metabolism. There are even a few bizarre news reports about people coming back to life. (Ahem, and we’re not referring to a certain someone who is well-known for Easter.) Here are just a few examples of seemingly-extreme resuscitation.
- North American wood frogs can freeze solid and appear dead, until they thaw in the spring and get down to business. The trick is to thaw in the right way. If a frog’s brain thawed before its heart did, the frog would have some problems. [url]
- Hibernating black bears stay dormant for 5-7 months without eating, drinking or doing much of anything. However, a hibernating bear’s body temperature doesn’t drop much — about 10 °F — even though the bear’s metabolism is at about 25% of its normal rate. [url]
- There are a few companies working on cryonics — freezing people who believe they can be revived when medical technology is much more advanced. Maybe these people are hoping to meet Erin Gray someday…. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Filed Under: bears, cryonics, death, erin gray, frogs, hibernation, reanimation, resuscitation
Comments on “DailyDirt: Bringing Back The Undead”
Erin Grey
I’ve met Erin Grey. She was managing talent at a FireFly convention.
She’s a very nice lady, but she did NOT freeze herself and so will not be in the 25th century to greet everyone looking like she’s in her 20s in skintight white leather bodysuits 😉
(She’s really a pleasure to talk to!)
Ehud
Tucson AZ
It’s weird how fish, which are cold-blooded, don’t hibernate, yet bears, which are warm-blooded, do.
Re: Re:
It’s no so weird — it’s because of how “hibernate” is defined. Hibernation requires the animal to down-regulate their body temperature or metabolic rate. Ectothermic animals such as fish are incapable of regulating either temperature or metabolic rate, as so can’t hibernate by definition.
However, fish can absolutely enter a dormant state (which is the same condition that is achieved through hibernation) when their temperature or metabolic rate is reduced due to environmental conditions such as water temperature or water oxygen content falling below certain levels.
In the end, it’s the same state. It’s how you get there that determines if it’s hibernation or not.
Here’s an interesting one…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Dead_Guy_Days
I lived next door to grandpa for a while. He was a nice quiet neighbor.
IMHO the main article really should have included the amazing results obtained by the University Hospital of North-Norway (UNN). In particular the work done by world famous doctor and researcher Mads Gilbert and the rest of the Cold Water Survival team.
One such rescue was the one of Anna B?genholm, that went head first through the ice 18:20. She managed to find an air pocket and stayed conscious for 40 minutes upside down and locked in the ice. Her friends chopped away the ice for 80 minutes and were then able to drag her up and out of it.
Her body temperature was 13.7 degrees Celsius.
Mads Gilbert and his team of doctors saved her and the first heartbeat came 22:15.
She recovered completely and is now a full time doctor herself.
Information in norwegian
Re: UNN
BTW, her hart stopped when she lost consciousness, at 19:00.
They also rescued John Arve Johansen after an 7 hour long cardiac arrest. He had been sustained with manual CPR. Probably the longest so far anywhere on the planet.
Ideally, every major hospital should be this skillful and progress knowledge this fast.
Polar bears
IIRC, Polar bears will not eat for several months while they go ashore to nest and have cubs. they will live off accumulated body fat. Basically, not eating for a long time is not an unusual trait for even some warm-blooded anuimals.
(And whales can dive for close to an hour without needing a breath. Not evry animal is as hampered as humans.)