A Swedish doctor spent 80 minutes trapped beneath river ice. Months later, she returned to work after one of medicine's most extraordinary recoveries

Image(s): Left/Nine/Right/Canva Most people who suffer cardiac arrest after prolonged submersion in icy water have little chance of survival. Yet in one of the most remarkable medical recoveries ever recorded, Anna Bågenholm, a Swedish radiologist, survived after becoming trapped beneath a frozen river in Norway for 80 minutes, during which her heart stopped beating for more than an hour. When rescuers finally pulled her from the water in May 1999, her body temperature had fallen to 13.7°C, one of the lowest ever recorded in a living adult. Against overwhelming odds, she not only survived but returned to work as a doctor just five months later. Her case transformed scientists' understanding of hypothermia and continues to influence emergency medicine worldwide.A skiing accident left Anna Bågenholm trapped beneath thick river iceThe accident occurred while Anna Bågenholm, then a 29-year-old radiologist, was skiing with colleagues in the mountains near Narvik, northern Norway.She lost control on a steep slope and plunged headfirst through thin ice covering a mountain stream. Her body became wedged beneath the ice while the current held her underwater. Although one hand remained above...