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Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience

 
Andrew Murray comments on the frozen girl case

Dr Andrew Murray was featured on the Telegraph regarding the High Court ruling about the teenager allowed to be frozen after death

Interviewed by the Telegraph, Andrew Murray recounted the case of Anna Bagenholm, who became the first person to survive being trapped in freezing water for 80 minutes following a skiing accident in Norway. Her temperature fell to 56.7F (13.7C), one of the lowest body temperatures ever recorded in a human with hypothermia. When she awoke she was paralysed from the neck down and still suffers from nerve damage in her hands and feet.

“The case of Anna Bagenholm shows the kind of damage that can occur from freezing,” said Murray. “But in that case the woman was not dead so it’s very different from the idea that death is a reversible process rather than an event in which the cells begin degrading. 

“Even if it was possible to bring someone back and reverse death, which it probably never will be, a person could emerge with an entirely different personality, or without any memories of the past.”

You can read the full article here.

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