It has been reported on many occasions that humans are able to survive in a cold water even though they stop breathing and heartbeat, and are seemingly drowned, see e.g. {Palermo}, {ilfscience}. In the aforementioned cases, two kinds survived and were brought back to life after 42 minutes and 2 hours respectively.
This (rather scarcely researched) ability of a human organism may be useful in treating specific cases of patients. The aim of this short note is to brings forward a proposal for the False-Death Method for patients in life threatening condition and oncological patients.
First, let us consider a case of a critically wounded patient, for example during a car accident. Usually, internal wounds and blood loss are major issues a medical personal must face. Every minute of delay may cause a patient to die.
I propose this: stop heartbeat of this patient and immediately put him/her into a cold (cca 5 degree Celsius) water. Submerged and without heartbeat, a patient still can survive minutes or tens of minutes, while giving additional minutes to a medical rescue team for preparation. Also, the problem of blood loss is eliminated. When a rescue team is ready, a patient is revived and rescue team does its job.
Of course, there is a risk that a patient cannot be revived, but this F-D method is proposed only for the most critical patients with a very low survival rate otherwise.
Secondly, consider an oncological patient who cannot be treated by standard methods.
Again, stop heartbeat of this patient and immediately put him/her into a cold water. Without blood circulation, cancer cells will start to die off. Currently, it is unknown how many cells will die during this time, however, they might be reduced significantly. Furhter on, without blood circulation, a radio-isotope with a very short decay (in tens of seconds) can be delivered directly into a tumour without spreading to the rest of the body, thus targeting just the volume of a tumour. Also, chemotherapical substances can be delivered exactly at the spot where they are intended to be active, without causing harm elsewhere. Other possibilites, such as bringing a small sonde in the right spot that burns the tissue, could be considered as well.
As before, the risk is that a patient is not revived, or his/her health takes a significant harm. However, the F-D method is intended only for the cases that cannot be treated by other methods.
I suggest to carry out an extensive research on a behaviour of a human organism submerged in a cold water without a hearbeat.
What is your opinion?
References?
Palermo, E. (2015). Surviving 42 Minutes Underwater…How Boy Beat the Odds, \textit{Livescience}, https://www.livescience.com/51046-how-boy-survived-near-drowning.html
ILFScience. (2020). Child Revived Almost 2 Hours After "Drowning" - But How?, ILFScince, https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/child-survived-almost-2-hours-cpr-after-falling-icy-stream-how/
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