Lost in the cold: 21 years ago, a miraculous story of survival

Two-year-old Karlee Kosolofski was found frozen on the doorstep of her home in Rouleau, Sask. in 1994.

The death of a three-year-old boy named Elijah, who wandered from his Toronto home in frigid temperatures, has left the community in shock.

Canada has seen other such cases of young children who become lost in bitterly cold weather, and while many end in tragedy, there are also stories of hope and survival.

On Feb.23, 1994, two-year-old Karlee Kosolofski was found frozen on the doorstep of her home in Rouleau, Sask.

The two-year-old woke early that day as her father was preparing to leave for work. Before heading out the door, Karlee's father tucked her back into bed.

But after he left, Karlee likely ventured outside in search of her father. She was wearing her winter boots and coat overtop of her pajamas.

And the toddler, who was too small to reach a door handle, couldn't get back inside her home.

Karlee spent some five hours in temperatures that were estimated to be around -22 C.

She was discovered by her mother, who tried to resuscitate the child without success.

Karlee's mother said the child was frozen solid and wasn't breathing -- she thought she was dead.

Miraculously, doctors managed to revive the two-year-old who had a body temperature of 14.2 C. A normal body temperature hovers around 37 C.

Besides losing the losing the lower part of her left leg in the ordeal, she recovered without any other ill effects.

And in February, 2001, 13-month-old toddler Erika Nordby was discovered curled up in the snow outside of her home in Edmonton, Alta., wearing only a diaper

Erika's mother said that the toddler wandered out of bed and into a snowy backyard. Temperatures were recorded at around -20 C that night.

The 13-month-old toddler's feet were frozen together and she had no pulse. Upon her arrival in hospital, she was considered clinically dead.

However, doctors in hospital managed to slowly warm her body and bring her back to life. Erika managed to survive the incident with severe frostbite.

Her remarkable recovery led to doctors at the hospital giving her the nickname "miracle."

Gordon Giesbrecht, a hypothermia expert at the University of Manitoba, told CTV News Channel that it is "very difficult to predict" whether resuscitation attempts will be successful or not.

But some of these miraculous recoveries are part of the reason why new guidelines by the Wilderness Medical Society set "no low-temperature cut-off for aggressive resuscitation."

"What we know about the cold is that it causes the heart to stop, but it also protects organs when nothing else is happening, so even though someone might look like they're deceased … we certainly advocate warming and oxygenation," he said.

"For a long period of time right up until the heart stops … you're kind of in suspended animation, not quite, but at that temperature the oxygen requirements of the brain are very low," he added.

But regardless of the prognosis, Giesbrecht says that rescue workers should try to bring a child back to life.

"We just know it is possible, therefore we always advocate – especially with children when so much is at stake -- to give it their best shot," said Giesbrecht.