Complete neurological recovery following delayed initiation of hypothermia in a victim of warm water near-drowning.

Abstract

Induced hypothermia has been demonstrated to improve outcome following cardiac arrest and is now widely endorsed. However, the optimal method of cooling and the identification of patients most likely to benefit from this therapy remains to be determined. We report a patient in whom there was a long delay in return of spontaneous circulation (at least 45 min) and the initiation of induced hypothermia (12 h) who made an almost complete neurological recovery following cardiac arrest from warm-water near-drowning.