How did a boy survive for 42 minutes underwater?

His survival was heralded as an ‘exceptional event’ by doctors and ‘miraculous’ by the boy’s mother.
But how did he survive for so long?
The team at On Demand News think they have the answer.

The teenager jumped from a bridge into the Naviglio Canal (Picture: Google)

When a person’s head is submerged in water they will automatically hold their breath and their heart rate will slow down as a result of the human diving reflex. Blood is pulled away from the extremities to the vital organs, which in turn helps circulation between the heart and brain.
That is undoubtedly partly to thank.
But a second, more controversial theory, reports ODN’s Claire Lomas, is more likely to be responsible for the 14-year-old’s recovery and it lies in something called the selective brain cooling hypothesis.
The quicker the brain cools, the more likely it is to survive. The hypothesis posits that if you’re immersed in cold water – as the boy in question was – the body conserves carbon dioxide, the blood vessels in the brain dilate and more cool blood enters the brain, which keeps you alive.