According to the Oxford Journal's 2013 report on Clinical Applications of Induced Hypothermia, this results in death in over 1/3 of all people that experience it. If the attempt to warm itself up fails, all chemical reactions slow down which means the brain uses less oxygen and can survive longer. .
Scientists, the clever people that they are, decided that this could be used to their advantage (pause) by lowering body temperatures safely. The first experiment on pigs was performed in the University of Michigan in 2002 by Dr. Alam. In order to simulate the damage of a gunshot wound doctors created a massive hemorrhage inside a pig's body. The blood of the pigs was drained, and replaced with a cold saline solution. After the hemorrhage was repaired, the pigs' blood was returned to their bodies and the pigs were revived. None of the pigs had any physical or mental impairments. One of the scientists on the trial, Peter Rhee told the March 30th 2014 Guardian, that the procedure changed the definition of dead. .
Considering the breakthrough results the scientists had in their experiments on pigs, the next step was to apply the procedure to humans. With an understanding of the background info on hypothermia and past trials, let's apply this knowledge to the human trials and the procedure that they follow. First, according to its own website, last updated on July 15th, 2014, the Food and Drug Administration states, basically any doctors performing a clinical trial must obtain consent. So basically, any doctors performing a clinical trial must obtain consent before they do anything to the human patient. In this case, since the patients will be unconscious and time is the specific thing that the patient doesn't have because, you know, they're bleeding out, the FDA makes an exception. However, there are still guidelines that a patient must meet in order to receive this potentially lifesaving procedure.
