Gore Ottsen Persuasive Speech

On a cold September day of 2010, in Colorado, one of the coldest places in the U.S, 2 year old Gore Ottsen had fallen into icy cold water during a family trip to the Rocky Mountains. While his Mother was bathing his two baby siblings, Gore had slipped out through the back door. When his Mother had frantically realized he was no where in her sight, she immediately assembled a family search party to locate him. After 20 minutes passed by, Gore's Uncle Dave spotted Gore's body trapped under a log in a strong current irrigation ditch 350ft from the cabin. He was rushed to the closest hospital, where the doctor tried to resuscitate the child, but after being submerged for 25 minutes under water, the Ottsen family was told Gore had less than 1 percent change of surviving. The toddlers heart had stopped beating leaving the family devastated. However after almost an hour of having a non-beating heart,

Gore was revived at the Denver Children’s Hospital and a few days later, he recovered completely leaving with a clean bill of health.
This story borderlines between god given miracle, myth and impossible.

However I assure you it is 100% true, and it is not the first case. These experiences showcase the amazing ability of the humans body and how it can unconsciously protect us.

The reason baby Gore Ottsen survived is due to a evolutionary reflex called the mammalian diving reflex. This reflex is found in mammals such as dolphins and whales who cannot breathe underwater. These animals must come up to the surface to breathe and then carry their air with them as they swim. For example, sperm whales are able to dive deeper than 1000 meters and store up to 3000 liters of air before a dive. How can a mammal stay underwater for so long? Similar to baby Gore Ottsen, the mammalian diving reflex allowing them to stay submerged for extended periods of time.

The reflex is triggered by a physiological reaction to wet apnea, so submersion is necessary for this reaction to occur and cannot merely happen while holding you're breath. When a mammal is submerged, 2 things happen: vasoconstriction and heart rate

reduction.
Humans, aquatic mammals and diving birds all portray vasoconstriction when submerged. Vasoconstriction is the reduction of blood flow due to the narrowing of blood vessels by muscle contraction in the walls of the blood vessel. This results to lower blood flow to peripheral organs, which do not need a lot oxygen to function, conserving blood and oxygen for the more essential organs of the body that need a substantially more amount of oxygen like the heart, lung and brain.
Bradycardia, or heart rate reduction, is the second physiological reaction to occur during the mammalian diving reflex. This is an instant reflex that does not require full submersion in most humans, for example simply wetting the face is enough to drop the heart rate by 10-30%. Divers who have specifically trained their mammalian diving reflex are able to reduce their heart rate of up to 50%. However, the efficiency of bradycardia also depends on the temperature of the water in which one is submerged as the colder the water, the greater the heart rate reduction. Bradycardia helps conserve oxygen in the body longer, allowing oxygen to inhabit in the body and provide to the necessary organs for a longer period of time.
Taking another look at the story, it can be understood that Gore survived due to the mammalian reflex during an icy cold submersion, and due to the temperature it lead to a greater heart rate reduction allowing his body to preserve and distribute needed oxygen by vasoconstriction to the rest of the body. Due to his small stature, he needed less oxygen than an adult, and was able to survive for 25 minutes underwater. Now as this is a reflex, everyone has a different reaction time explaining why not everyone that drowns survives. Gore Ottsen is a miracle story that shows us to appreciate our bodies for the things we can see it do, and the things we cant see it do. Our body is always working to keep surviving and it never takes a vacation.