For Sissy Smith, it was nothing less than a miracle, when she learnt that her son, Justin, has revived after being frozen for an entire night in subzero temperatures. The 26-year-old was about to be declared dead when he regained consciousness. The incident took place in February 2015. While, walking back towards home after a night out with friends at a bar, Justin Smith, was likely to have slipped and subsequently hit his head before falling onto a snowbank. Estimations had to be made by the doctors because Justin cannot remember anything.

He was discovered the next morning at that place by his father, Don Smith. He had already been exposed to the elements for 12 hours and the temperature the night before was four degrees below zero. Don stated that when he located Justin, he was lying with his face up and had turned blue. His face seemed lifeless. Don failed to detect any pulse or heartbeat in Justin.

The coroner and the state police reached the location and it was being investigated like a death case, recalled Dr. Gerald Coleman, who is a physician at the emergency department of Lehigh Valley Hospital in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. But, it was not long, before paramedics were told by Dr. Coleman to immediately take Justin to Lehigh Valley Hospital Cedar Crest, near Allentown.

Justin was hooked to an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine that circulated blood using a pump through the machine, which warms and reinstates oxygen in the blood before pumping it back into the bloodstream. Justin’s heartbeat revived, though he was in coma for the next 15 days. To the doctors’ surprise, when Justin came out of coma, there were no signs of any brain damage. The miracle was explained by Dr. James Wu of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, who said that the brain and other organ functions get preserved when the body temperature drops too low.