Doctors Revive Boy Who Spent Four Hours Trapped in Freezer

An 8-year-old boy reaching for Popsicles on a hot day became trapped in a chest freezer for four hours and his body temperature dropped nearly 30 degrees before doctors were able to revive him.

“It’s kind of a miracle,” said Dr. Stephen Evans, director of the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital in suburban Lorain, where Joseph Krogg of Sheffield Lake was brought Thursday night.

“I have never seen anything like this in my 12 years in medicine,” Evans said.

Doctors used intravenous fluids and warm blankets to slowly warm Joseph’s body, Evans said. The boy was listed in extremely critical condition today at Rainbow Babies’ and Children’s Hospital.

The youngster was reported missing by his parents after he disappeared Thursday afternoon, when the temperature soared into the 90s.

Joseph apparently fell in the freezer while trying to retrieve some Popsicles, his father, Dale Krogg, told Evans. The lid closed on Joseph and he was trapped. Because of the freezer’s location, any pounding or yelling could not be heard.

Krogg found his son at 6:30 p.m. when he went to the freezer in the family’s garage to get meat for dinner.

When Joseph was brought to the hospital at 7 p.m., Evans told Krogg the chances of resuscitating the boy were one in a million.

His body temperature had dropped to 70 degrees, icicles had formed on his body and he had no pulse. His heart had stopped beating, Evans said.

About 11 p.m., Joseph’s heart began beating again and by 1 a.m. his vital signs were good, the physician said.

“Obviously, he is not out of the woods yet,” Evans said.

It will take several days to determine whether Joseph has suffered any brain damage, Evans said.