- Who
- Adam
- What
- 11.8°C degree(s) Celsius
- Where
- Poland (Kraków)
- When
The lowest recorded body temperature - measured using a rectal thermometer - was 11.8°C (53.2°F), in the case of a 27-month-old toddler known as "Adam", who was assessed while undergoing treatment by doctors in Kraków, Poland, on 30 November 2014.
Adam had wandered barefoot outside his grandmother’s home in Racławice, Poland, during the early hours of the morning, when temperatures dipped to -7°C (19.4°F). He collapsed by a creek and lay for at least three hours before being discovered by police. He was rushed to hospital in a heated ambulance and successfully resuscitated, despite his extremely low body temperature. He was up and walking within two weeks. “He plays, frolics, runs… he can even be unruly,” said Janusz Skalski, the heart surgeon who led Adam’s recovery team. The case notes were presented in the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (November 2020).
The lowest temperature to which a human has been cooled deliberately is 9°C (48.2°F), in the case of a 51-year-old patient undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer on 28 December 1955; she was revived and suffered no ill effects from the experience.
