Doctors at a private hospital in Vietnam were able to save a man who had been critically injured from an electronic shock by actively lowering his core body temperature to around 33 degrees Celsius for 24 hours.

On Wednesday afternoon, Xuyen A General Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City announced that they had successfully revived a patient who had been rushed to the institution after suffering from an electronic shock.

The patient’s miraculous recovery drew a lot of attention from the public because the hospital had used a method known as therapeutic hypothermia, where they lowered the patient’s core body temperature to 33 degrees Celsius for 24 hours straight to prevent damage to his brain.

N.V.P., 26, who lives in Hoc Mon, an outlying district of Ho Chi Minh City, was changing a light bulb at his home when he suffered from an electric shock and fell down onto the floor.

The young man went into a cardiac arrest and could not breathe either.

The patient’s relatives immediately gave him first aid and had him rushed to Xuyen A General Hospital in Cu Chi District.

When P. was brought into the emergency room, he had gone into a full cardiac arrest, according to Dr. Khuong Ke Hanh, a first-degree specialist and head of the infirmary's intensive care unit (ICU).

Given the patient’s critical condition, the hospital’s ‘red alert’ emergency procedure was immediately activated as health workers tried their best to resuscitate him.

After 20 minutes of consecutive resuscitation, the patient was brought back to life, regaining his pulse and blood pressure.

Although his limbs were responsive, he was still in a deep coma due to brain damage caused by the prolonged cardiac arrest.

The patient was then brought to ICU, where he was treated with therapeutic hypothermia to protect his brain.

As per this procedure, P.'s core body temperature was lowered to 33 degrees Celsius, effectively putting him in artificial 'hibernation' for 24 consecutive hours.

The patient regained consciousness after only five days of intensive treatment and was healthy enough to be able to eat normally and move his limbs easily.

According to Dr. Hanh, therapeutic hypothermia, which in this case is moderate hypothermia, is a method to quickly lower the patient’s core body temperature to a target point (32-36 degrees Celsius) for a certain duration.

This type of treatment aims to slow the body’s metabolic process, similar to the state of sleeping, in order to preserve the brain and other vital organs, improving the chances of recovery for the patient.

Therapeutic hypothermia has been proved to be highly effective in clinical treatment, especially to protect the patient’s nervous system. The treatment usually lasts about 24 hours.

This highly advanced technique is expected to be applied to other emergency cases.

Currently, this method has been included in the emergency procedure for patients who suffer a cardiac arrest and applied in many developed countries.

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