Doctors 'Freeze' North Carolina Mom Amy Moore to Save Her Life

Nov. 9, 2010— -- Doctors may have saved a North Carolina woman's life recently by literally putting her body on ice.

Amy Moore, a 38-year-old mother, was all but dead when she collapsed at her workplace on Sept. 14, suffering what's called "sudden cardiac death" -- despite having no pre-existing heart conditions. According to doctors at the University of North Carolina where Moore was treated, she had no pulse for 20 minutes.

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"She was in really bad shape. It was very scary, she was unconscious, but she was fighting tremendously," said her husband, Jacob Moore.

Moore was rushed to a local hospital in a race against time.

"When I saw her and her family, I thought that her chance of survival was less than 50 percent," said Dr. Joe Rossi, a cardiologist at the University of North Carolina.

Doctors attempted a daring procedure, essentially freezing Moore's body to buy time until they could get her damaged heart pumping again.

The procedure is called therapeutic hypothermia, and it involves artificially lowering the body's temperature.

Moore was wrapped in an ice-cold blanket and injected with freezing fluids to bring her temperature down to just 93 degrees, well below the body's normal 98.6 degree temperature. Her body was kept in that state for two days.

The cooling put Moore's brain into a dormant state, helping to avoid the brain damage that comes when the heart temporarily stops providing the brain with blood.