Child Is Frozen Alive

13-month-old Erica died in a snowy garden one wintry night in Edmonton, Canada, but miraculously she somehow came back to life. How is this possible? We’ll investigate the mystery and try to provide some answers.

According to the emergency room staff at Stollery Children’s Centre, young Erica ‘s heart stopped for at least 90 minutes, and maybe for as long as three hours! But was the girl really frozen solid? With her toes frozen to her jaw (she was found outside in the fetal position) and her body temperature dropped to 61F, it’s no wonder the doctor’s thought so. Still, they refused to accept the prognosis without an attempt to save the little girl’s life, and their efforts should be greatly applauded!

It all started with Erica and her Mom staying over at a friend’s house. That evening, Erica and her Mom laid down and fell asleep in the same bed, but in the middle of the night her mother awoke to find Erica missing. The mother awoke everyone and they searched the house, certain the child had wandered off into another room, but she was nowhere to be found. With their inside search producing no results, they grabbed a torch and moved the search outside, where they finally found Erica lying in the garden, an hour later.

With Erica’s jaw and toes frozen together, paramedics couldn’t open her mouth, but Krista Rempel had witnessed a similar case where the child had survived and she was convinced this warranted a trip[ to the hospital. One there, Erica was warmed up and her heart miraculously started beating again. How is this possible?

Frozen In Time

Though no one is certain what kept young Erica alive, it's thought that her temperature quickly dropped before her heart stopped, and this placed her into a coma. While we don't thoroughly understand the function of a coma, we do know that it appears to be a way for the body to self-repair or overcome extreme adversity. In the case of young Erica, the coma was induced by hypothermia and her body's response was to shutdown all necessary processes, focusing solely on keeping her alive.

What we do know is that Erica refused to die that night, and her epic survival is one of many that have been recorded throughout history. People continue to survive against all odds, proving the human body is much more resilient than we give it credit for.

While some will claim divine intervention provided the spark to bring this lucky child back from the grave (and they could be right), we'd like to think it was the human spirit to live past adversity that awoke the frozen princess from her seemingly wintry grave.