Merry Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 354

13.7°C (56.7°F)

Swedish radiologist Dr Anna Elisabeth Johansson Bågenholm survived an accidental hypothermia accident at age 29. She was skiing in Norway and fell into a stream. Her body was trapped under ice, but she found an air pocket. By the time rescuers could break through the ice, she had been in the water for 80 minutes and was unconscious without a pulse. 2hrs 15 minutes later once on ECMO, staff managed to get a heartbeat. She was 35 days on a ventilator and returned to work 140 days after the accident with no signs of any brain damage.

At the time, she was studying to become an orthopaedic surgeon and it would appear her hypothermia accident made her smarter, as she later trained to become a radiologist.

Reference:

• Gilbert M, Busund R, Skagseth A, Nilsen PA, Solbø JP. Resuscitation from accidental hypothermia of 13.7 degree C with circulatory arrest – PubMed (nih.gov). Lancet. 2000 Jan 29;355(9201):375-6.
• Martin DS. From an icy slope, a medical miracle emerges. CNN 2009

An Oat biscuit according to the DUNC study.

Authors of the DUNC study conclude that a healthcare worker can enjoy a cup of tea and a nutritional biscuit in a 10-minute break period.

The optimal drinking temp was 61°C (141.8°F), achieved at 330-450 seconds with 40ml of milk. The oat biscuit faired to have the highest nutritional content and was least likely to break.

Reference:

• Jones C and Francis J. Direct Uptake of Nutrition and Caffeine Study (DUNCS): biscuit based comparative study. 2022;379:e072839

Cervical Spine and ankylosing spondylitis.

Carrot Stick fractures (less festively referred to as ‘chalk stick’ fractures) usually occur through disco-vertebral junctions in the lower cervical or upper thoracic spine. When a spine is fused, like in ankylosing spondylitis, the fused columns act as lever points and can result in significant and unstable fractures from minimal trauma.

Rudolph better be careful if he has AS when landing on the roof on Christmas Eve.

• Skalski M. Cervical ankylosis – DISH, OPLL, AS – illustrations. Radiopaedia
• O’Donnell C. Carrot stick fracture – ankylosing spondylitis. Radiopaedia
• Bickle I. Chalk stick fracture. Radiopaedia

Nonsense; to mislead, deceive or hoax.

Ebenezer Scrooge most famously shouts “Humbug” throughout Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” first published in 1843. But Dickens did not use the term Humbug as ‘I hate Christmas’.

Humbug originally appeared in the writing in a 1750 issue of The Students, or the Oxford and Cambridge Monthly Miscellany, where it was a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion. See all the cool kids were using it but no meaning was attached, cool and rad man!

Later, it was referred to as a hoax or someone forming a trick. In keeping with Scrooge’s belief that Christmas was trying to swindle money from the rich, he must have felt the whole season was one big jest after another.

Reference:

• What does “Bah Humbug” actually mean – mental floss