Thanx for the reference. Enjoyed it. I've always had a fascination with this. I've actually got a story I'd like to quickly share on this, something that happened recently...
About 3-4 months ago. Teenage girl and here family were visiting our local ski resort. Freash snow, snowing the entire week, includig that day; 6-8 inches a day and 12-15 at night. Group took one run down the mountain and on their second run at about 1030 hours, the girl got seperated from the family. Family thought noting of it until about 1600 hrs when they realized that she hadn't been seen since the start of that 2nd run. Sunset and night starts at about 1600-1700 hrs that time of year, and it is still snowing steady. The Resort Ski Patrol and the Volunteer Forest Service Ski Patrol starts hitting the slopes and we (SAR) are notified to launch. We are about to respond when we get cancelled at about 1700 hours. A ski patroller, on a whim, ventures toward a group of trees and sees the tip of her snowboard sticking out of the snow. Here's where it gets interesting:
Since this was a SAR call, even though we never responded, we recieve an official report on the incident, including coroner reports: She was found in a tree well, so you would immediately think trauma (her vs. tree) or your typical tree well entrapment (a Snow Immersion Death). However, the autopsy revealed no signs of trauma, and she wasn't found deep in the tree well; in fact the well wasn't really deep or steep enough and she was found near the top of it, only a foot or so from the top. While we will never know the exact cause of death, it was generally believed that she was already slightly hypothermic before starting her trip down the hill (no the best clothing choices and it was snowing) and that she slid into the tree well, attepted to get herself out, but was so tired and cold that she "took a moment to rest" before getting herself off of the mountain, fell asleep, and sucombed to hypothermia. That scenerio didn't really answer all the questions and was never satisfying for anyone; ski patrol, the coroners, or us. Then we had a special class last month on hypothermia (great information!) during which the instructor (a MD/FACEP/Wilderness Medicine Expert) suggested LQTS for this case. Based on the information at hand and talking to the coroner, he thought that it explained the death better. Of course, the cold weather may have been a contributing factor, but the scene as described by the coroners/ski patrollers looked as if she had just collapsed near the tree, "gave up", and died. No trauma, no signs of tree well entrapment, and only the weather/cold as a possible "last resort" explaination. The MD said that there was a post-mortum genetic test that could have been done to deternmine if it was LQTS, but unlike what we see on "CSI: Miami" that is not a routine thing. So, while we will never know for sure, there are those of us that have considered LQTS as an explination. Sound plausible to all of ya?
That is part of my interest in this syndrome. So thanks, again for the website!
