Question:
A quick google search showed that hypothermia has been researched for ameliorating/minimizing neurological damage following stroke/ ischemia. It has also been used in spinal cord injury. My understanding is that hyopthermia may reduce the inflammation at the site of injury as well as prevent secondary damage from occurring. When there is trauma to a nerve, there is initial damage at the trauma site (necrosis) followed by secondary damage around the trauma site (programmed cell death or apoptosis). Preventing the secondary damage could potentially minimize the neurological deficit. (When I was an assistant professor, I collaborated with another professor who was conducting research in spinal cord injury and how to prevent apoptosis using inhibitors and neurogrowth factors).

Perhaps in Kevin's case, the hypothermia induction almost immediately following the injury is what prevented further neurological deficit (more research is probably needed to definitively answer this question). I also understand that there can be some negative consequences of hypothermia (lowering the immune response).

And to that idiot who keeps saying that the doctors' lied as to the initial prognosis, remember that with any injury to the body (let alone the spinal cord) there is inflammation/swelling. One needs to wait until the inflammation decreases to fully assess the damage. At that time, the doctors were basing there prognosis on past experience and the severity of the injury (one vertebrae jumped another vertebrae for pete's sake).

If hypothermia was an important treatment that will allow Kevin to walk, then I hope that Kevin's injury results in all trauma units getting the training/equipment to induce hypothermia. Dr. Green stated that Marc Buoniconti suffered a similar injury as Kevin but hypothermia was not used at that time.

I would not state that what happened to Kevin is a miracle but the result of years of research by dedicated scientists and doctors.

Answer: Hypothermia has also been shown as a new approach to preventing deaths from heart attacks. The current model based on immediate CPR is being questioned since a clinical study has shown that oxygen perfusion to the brain (via CPR) to prevent brain cell death may actually be the cause of cell death; a strategy whereby a patient is "chilled" while the brain shuts down may allow for longer survival, usually more than enough time to re-start the heart under non-rushed conditions. The study was reported in a Newsweek medical report a few months back.