26-year-old Justin Smith was walking home from his local bar in Tresckow, Pennsylvania last February when he blacked out and ended up lying unconscious in the snow.
His father, Don Smith, found him the next morning and called the emergency services. When paramedics arrived they took it that Justin was dead.
But he was taken to hospital where doctors thought he could still be revived. Using a procedure usually used to save patients whose lungs and heart are damaged by a heart attack, doctors revive Justin.
He lost all his toes and his little fingers on both hands from frostbite but he has no lasting neurological damage.
Justin Smith doesn’t remember much of his survival story, but his family, friends and doctors do, and they’re still amazed it’s not an obituary.
Justin looked frozen solid the morning when his father found him near Tresckow Road, in Tresckow. Don Smith believed his only son was dead. Justin was lying “life-less” in a foot of snow, his blue eyes open and empty, his face purple, his body rigid.
He likely had been there overnight as the temperatures plunged to a frigid -4 degrees F. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing; he showed no signs of life.
His fathered had cried, saying “I held him and sobbed, ‘Justin, don’t leave me’. Then I called his mother and told her, ‘Justin’s dead.'”
Justin’s dad, mum and the rest of their family are so so happy he’s back to live.
