Press Release From 1/20/2022
Emergency crews were called early the morning of Saturday, Jan. 15, to a report that a man had been found outside his fish house on Mille Lacs, extremities frozen and unresponsive.
The man, identified by family on social media as an experienced ice fisherman from St. Cloud, had gone to his fish house on Mille Lacs Friday to do some ice fishing. He asked the staff at the resort where he had entered the lake to check on him that evening and the next morning.
That night around 11 p.m. resort staff checked on him and according to the man’s Caring Bridge page, he was “tucked into his icehouse for the night.”
The next morning when resort staff went to go check on him, they found him outside his fish house, the door was wide open, he was laying on his stomach, all four extremities (both arms and both legs) frozen, unresponsive, and barely breathing.
It appeared that he had fallen and had been attempting to crawl back to the fish house. He was not dressed for the cold weather. That night temperatures were well below zero.
The resort staff called 911 at 6:38 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 15. He was subsequently airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis.
According to the Caring Bridge page, the initial report was severe hypothermia, and his core body temperature was 70 degrees. He had to have continuous CPR on a LUCAS device since his heart rate was 10 beats per minute at the scene.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was also being used to warm him up. He also had pulmonary edema (a condition where fluid accumulates in lung tissues) and was put on a ventilator to ensure he had good oxygen flow.
A Jan. 19 Caring Bridge update said the man was breathing on his own and was making strides to recovery, but he remained in the intensive care unit at HCMC.
The resort was not available for comment and no further information is known at this time.
