Frozen Hearts

Since the 1950s, Western doctors have used the heart/lung machine to pump oxygen rich blood to the brain during heart surgery. Because of the risk of brain injury associated with the use of this apparatus, doctors at one hospital in Siberia have developed their own method of preserving brain function during heart surgery. They induce hypothermia in patients, slowing their body functions to a near standstill and allowing the brain to survive while the heart is stopped. Viewers witness this procedure when a ten-year-old girl is frozen to the brink of death before surgeons begin working on her impaired heart. Russian doctors claim that fewer patients suffer brain damage as a result of this technique, as opposed to those placed on the heart/lung machine.