A baby who didn’t breathe for 17 minutes was saved after being put in a ‘fridge’ for three days, she was born, Sophie Fleet swallowed fluids which caused a blockage in her airways and starved her brain of oxygen. Doctors treated her using medically-induced hypothermia, lowering her body temperature from the normal 37°C to 33.5°C for three days by putting Sophie into a special ‘fridge’ suit pumped with water to keep her body cool.
This reduced pressure on Sophie’s brain, thereby preventing further brain damage. She could go home with her parents nine days later, and only sustained mild brain damage. Sophie’s parents know that the outcome could have been much worse – their daughter could have suffered either severe or brain damage – without the hypothermia.