The conventional mantra is “four minutes without oxygen and you’re dead”. I say hoohey!
A particularly telling case was published in 2009 because the victim happened to be wearing a continuous heart-rate monitor, giving the investigators unusually good timing data.
A healthy 48-year-old Norwegian man capsized while kayaking in 3.5°C seawater. He remained conscious for some time as he cooled. Eventually he became unconscious, submerged completely and went into cardiac arrest. His personal heart monitor enabled the physicians to reconstruct the sequence unusually accurately.
Their estimate was: about 31 minutes from cardiac arrest/head submersion until CPR began.
During that interval there was therefore no effective circulation and, to all practical purposes, no breathing or ventilation whatsoever.
And it gets stranger. He then remained in cardiac arrest while being resuscitated for hours. Cardiopulmonary bypass was established 121 minutes after cardiac arrest, and sustained spontaneous circulation was not restored until 207 minutes — 3 hours 27 minutes — after arrest.
Yet his neurological examination eventually showed no focal brain damage. Formal neuropsychological testing one year later showed cognitive function at or above population averages, and he returned to his work as an engineer and resumed kayaking.1
They think that one case which follows their pattern “proves” their story. I say JUST ONE case the contradicts orthodox beliefs proves there is much to learn about the process of physical death.
Then there is an astonishing 83-minute case.
In 2015, Romlin and colleagues reported a 7-year-old girl submerged in icy seawater for an estimated at least 83 minutes.
When recovered she was in cardiac arrest, with ice actually present in her upper airway. Yikes! Her first documented nasopharyngeal temperature was only 13.8°C (normal is 37°C). She was rewarmed and made what the authors explicitly called an “excellent” and “exceptional” recovery, although treatment and rehabilitation were prolonged.
This case is important because 83 minutes is a documented submersion duration, unable to breathe atmospheric air, not 83 minutes of CPR.
Here’s another…
In 1986, 2½-year-old Michelle Funk was completely submerged in an icy Utah stream for at least 66 minutes. When recovered she was without breath and pulseless. Her core temperature eventually measured about 19°C.
After prolonged CPR and extracorporeal rewarming she appeared to make an extraordinary neurological recovery. The original JAMA report described it as a “good neurologic recovery.”2
And Now The New World Record: At Least 147 Minutes!
This one is extraordinary and was only published in 2025.
An 8-year-old boy in Pennsylvania fell through pond ice and remained submerged for at least 147 minutes; the estimated range was approximately 147–177 minutes. His peripheral temperature on recovery was measured at an extraordinary 7°C (45°F). He had no heartbeat (asystolic). CPR was continued during transport and he was placed on VA-ECMO (an intensive, temporary life-support system that takes over the functions of both the heart and the lungs) and rewarmed.
The authors explicitly describe this as the longest documented submersion survival in the medical literature.3
But — and this is a large BUT — he did not recover totally without adverse effects.
MRI showed early hypoxic-ischaemic changes. At six months he could stand unsupported, ride a tricycle, eat soft foods and obey simple commands, but he was still relearning basic tasks and recovering from neuromuscular weakness. The paper authors used the expression “meaningful neurological recovery”.
So we can say this: There is no precise instant at which cessation of breathing becomes death. Breathing can cease, circulation can cease and every ordinary outward sign of life can disappear, yet under exceptional conditions the process may still be reversible. Documented cases include apparently complete neurological recovery after more than half an hour without spontaneous respiration or circulation, and exceptional neurological recovery after more than 80 minutes of cold-water submersion. Human beings have survived documented submersion for at least 147 minutes, although the most extreme survivor sustained some neurological injury and had to re-learn basic tasks.
Medicine is incautious by pronouncing that circulation has “permanently” ceased or that the brain has “permanently” lost its capacity to function. It cannot point to cessation of breathing or even the first flat ECG and say, in every circumstance, “There. That was the moment the person ceased to exist.”
Indeed, these cases rather demolish that idea.
Many of these recovery cases have no “memory” of what took place while they were deeply unconscious. But some do.
The largest prospective study is the AWARE Study, led by Sam Parnia, with Peter Fenwick. Among more than 2,000 cardiac arrests, survivors reported a spectrum of experiences. About 9% described experiences meeting accepted criteria for a near-death experience, while about 2% reported explicit awareness of actual events occurring during resuscitation. One patient gave a verifiable account of events, meaning he was aware of what was happening around him, during a period when cerebral function would not normally have been expected to support conscious awareness.4
There are also numerous other published case reports.
One review from India described three patients surviving severe illness or trauma. All three reported classic features:
• an out-of-body experience,
• heightened awareness,
• vivid perception,
• and lasting psychological change after recovery.
Interestingly, the authors noted that some details faded with time, suggesting that these memories may behave differently from ordinary autobiographical memories.5
From the medical literature over the past 40 years, certain features recur with surprising consistency:
• a sense of leaving the body,
• unusually clear or “more real than real” consciousness,
• encounters with deceased relatives or beings,
• overwhelming peace or unconditional love,
• panoramic life review,
• reluctance to return,
• profound and lasting changes in personality and values.
Whether these experiences arise entirely from brain physiology or represent consciousness continuing under extraordinary conditions remains an open question. The experiences themselves are well documented; the interpretation remains debated.
No matter: very often what happens is the person have a vivid and typically joyful experience which seems to liberate him or her. After “dying” and then coming back the individual seems develop a powerful sense of personal existence that cannot be shaken by mere death.
Some survivors begin preaching, others running courses, some write a book, on what it really means to be alive.
Meantime let me remind you of the words of that beautiful song “The Rose” (verse 2):
It’s the heart, afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It’s the dream, afraid of waking
That never takes the chance
It’s the one who won’t be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul, afraid of dying
That never learns to live
We all get nearer the final exit, every day a step nearer. But it is nothing to fear. Remember, we cannot UN-be. That just can’t happen.
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Alternative Doctor
References:
- Heart rate monitored hypothermia and drowning in a 48-year-old man. survival without sequelae: a case report. Cases J. 2009 Aug 18;2:6204. doi: 10.4076/1757-1626-2-6204
- Bolte, Robert G.; Black, Philip G.; Bowers, Robert S.; Thorne, J. Kent; Corneli, Howard M. “The Use of Extracorporeal Rewarming in a Child Submerged for 66 Minutes.” JAMA. 1988;260(3):377–379. doi:10.1001/jama.1988.03410030093036
- Bartoli, Carlo R.; Wong, Ronald; Mazandi, Vanessa M.; Fairman, Alexander S.; Maffei, Frank A. “Ice Water Drowning Survival After 147-Minute Submersion and 7 °C Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest.” JACC: Case Reports. 2025;30(25):104885. doi:10.1016/j.jaccas.2025.104885
- Near death experiences, cognitive function and psychological outcomes of surviving cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. Volume 74, Issue 2, August 2007, Pages 215-221
- Purkayastha M, Mukherjee KK. Three cases of near death experience: Is it physiology, physics or philosophy? Ann Neurosci. 2012 Jul;19(3):104-6. doi: 10.5214/ans.0972.7531.190303. PMID: 25205979; PMCID: PMC4117086
