Chilling tale frozen in their memory

0 Comments | Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan 20, 1995 | by JOE MANNING

At the age of 12, Michael Troche has already set a world record but he doesn't remember anything about that 20-degree- below-zero Milwaukee day, a date regarded by his family as his "rebirthday."

Ten years ago Thursday, Michael, 2 1/2, was virtually frozen to death.

He had wandered outside his home in the early morning while his father, Jim, slept and his 6- year-old sister, Christina, watched television. His mother, Judy, a nurse, was at work.

The wind chill was 65 below. Michael may have been outside for up to three hours before being found by his father.

His arms and legs were frozen stiff. His mouth was frozen shut, and paramedics had to thaw his lips with warm, wet cloths to allow them to insert a breathing tube.

He was not breathing and had no heartbeat when he arrived at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa on that Saturday morning.

Physicians said he was essentially dead. But, there's a rule in emergency medicine: Someone cannot be cold and dead.

Michael set his record when his core temperature was taken at Children's 60 degrees. This merited a mention, by name, in the 1993 Guinness Book of World Records.

Physicians at Children's, who have been unable to find any case in which a person survived after having had such a low temperature, wrote a scientific paper on Michael.

His case received worldwide publicity.

Thursday night, the Troche family celebrated Michael's "rebirthday" by going out for Mike's favorite pepperoni pizza following Mike's soccer practice in the warm air of Chandler, Ariz.

The family moved to Arizona following Michael's chilling experience in the deep freeze of Milwaukee's winter weather. The move was precipitated by a warning from physicians that Michael might be sensitive to the cold and the fact that Mr. Troche found a job in Arizona.

But the move also was made so that nothing like that could ever happen to Michael again, Mrs. Troche said.

"I do not remember a thing," Michael, a sixth-grade honor student and starter on a tournament soccer team, said in a telephone interview.

"I feel fine," he said, adding that he was looking forward to playing in an upcoming soccer tournament in Tucson.

Michael also plays other sports, his mother said, adding: "All this from a kid they said may never walk. There's not much he cannot do."

Michael also enjoys skiing, but he must wear "big, warm mittens" and sometimes he shivers and complains of the cold, his father said.

"If I start to talk about it, I still get teary-eyed," his mother said.

"One of the interesting things I have been very pleased with looking back over the past 10 years is that Mike has never had problems with kids teasing him about what happened," Mr. Troche said.

Michael lost fingers on his left hand, and his left forearm is shortened because the growth plates on the ends of the bones were frozen and stopped growing.

Once in preschool, a classmate asked Mike what happened to his arm, Mr. Troche said.

"Mike said, `I froze,'" the father said.

Mrs. Troche said Michael may be blocking memories of the incident and the 10-week hospital stay.

"We sometimes drag out pictures and newspaper stories. He doesn't say much. He knows it was him, but it's like a different person," she said.

But, mom and dad remember too well.

There was the horror when their frozen little boy was found. At the hospital, they were never told Michael would die, but they had the feeling things were very serious.

"I could tell, way back in my mind, that they felt he was not going to make it," Mrs. Troche said.

Then they were told it was possible Mike may lose limbs, never walk and suffer brain damage.

Extraordinary efforts were made to save Michael, said Kevin Kelly, a critical care expert at Children's and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Kelly, along with many others, played a critical role in Michael's recovery.

"I remember it like yesterday. Everyone was very pessimistic. We didn't know it was going to work. His limbs were like if you would take something out of freezer," Kelly said.

A heart-lung machine was used to warm his blood and to get oxygen into tissues. A delicate line had to be drawn between warming Michael too quickly or too slowly.

Cold tissue has less need for oxygen, but oxygen needs rise as tissue warms and metabolism increases. The supply of oxygen- rich blood had to keep pace with the demand. But, at the same time, circulation was restricted by collapsed and compressed blood vessels.

At one point, Michael's limbs swelled to twice their size and the pressure on arteries threatened to restrict blood flow to tissue.

Michael has not been to the doctor in three years.

"Michael's episode has shown me what is important in life," his father said.

"It's amazing how adaptable the human body and spirit can be. He's a bright and intelligent kid. He has a joy for life, and he enjoys things so much. He plays hard, and when he puts his mind to it he can do just about anything."