The vast majority of the 300,000
Americans who suffer cardiac arrest every year die. Despite massive
investments in research and technology, fewer than eight in 100 leave
the hospital alive, a rate that has remained stagnant for almost 30
years. Even if the heart is restarted, only a minority make it. And of
those who do, many end up in nursing homes with crippling brain injury.
Doctors
say those statistics could change, however, if more people had access
to a procedure called therapeutic hypothermia--cooling the body. As
medical procedures go, it's among the simplest: Chill the patient about
six degrees Fahrenheit--using cold intravenous saline, cooling
blankets or ice packs--and wait 24 hours; then re-warm the patient
slowly and cross your fingers.