When 34-year-old Audrey Schoeman went into hypothermia-induced cardiac arrest, her husband, Rohan, thought she was dead. The pair were hiking through the Pyrenees mountain range in Spain in early November when they became trapped in a snowstorm.
“I was trying to feel for a pulse,” Rohan said. “… I couldn’t feel a breath, I couldn’t feel a heartbeat.”
Rohan quickly called for an ambulance and Schoeman was taken to Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, where she was treated by Dr. Jordi Riera, according to the BBC.
While the brain typically suffers permanent damage when the heart stops for five or more minutes, Schoeman survived her six-hour cardiac arrest and made a full recovery, according to The New York Times.
Riera said this happened because the drastic drop in Schoeman’s body temperature not only stopped her heart, but also slowed her brain metabolism, allowing it to endure the lack in oxygen.
Her body’s temperature dropped to 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 Fahrenheit), according to CNN.
“What happened to her is a consequence of the drop in body temperature,” Riera said. “As a scientist, I don’t like the word, but it’s like a miracle.”
Following her recovery, Schoeman thanked her caregivers for enabling her to continue on with her life, according to CNN.
“It’s like a miracle except I think it’s all because of the doctors,” she said. “Probably this winter I won’t go to the mountains, but I hope that in spring we will be able to start hiking and trekking again. I don’t want this to take away that hobby from me.”
Schoeman plans to go hiking again next spring, per BBC News.