When three-year-old Brittany Eichelberger slipped out of her family's trailer in Elkins, West Virginia on Christmas Eve 1990, no one knew she was gone. She was found hours later, clinically dead in the snow — frozen stiff, her heart stopped, her body nearly 25 degrees below normal temperature. A neighbor, a determined paramedic, and a rural hospital team that refused to quit launched one of the most extraordinary resuscitation efforts ever documented in emergency medicine. The cold that stopped her heart may also be the reason her brain survived. This is a story about what happens when everyone around you decides it isn't over yet.

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00:00 Podcast Intro

00:29 Door Left Open

01:44 Meet Brittany

03:15 How She Wandered

04:34 Found In Snow

05:34 CPR In The Yard

08:32 Hospital Fight

10:16 Three Hour CPR

15:08 Flight To Pittsburgh

17:23 Waking Up Again

18:59 Why Cold Saved Her

20:00 Recovery After Discharge

22:03 Living With The Story

23:36 Honoring Rescuers

26:08 Lessons And Wrap Up

27:08 Outro And Reviews

Associated Press. "Girl, 3, Found Clinically Dead in Snow, Is Revived." Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1990.

Associated Press. "Clinically Dead Tot Who Was Found Frozen Is Revived." Deseret News, December 27, 1990.

Gordon, Haley. "Woman Looks Back on 'Christmas Eve Miracle.'" The Intermountain, December 24, 2019.

"Longtime Randolph County Coroner Dailey Passes at 68." The Intermountain, February 13, 2026.

"Brenda Kay 'Bren' Dailey." Obituary. The Intermountain, February 14, 2026.

"Snowgirl Save." Rescue 911, Season 3, 1991. Rescue 911 Wiki, Fandom.

Dr. John Veach, Davis Memorial Hospital — quoted in AP wire reports, December 1990, and Rescue 911, 1991.

Dr. Shekhar Venkataraman, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh — quoted in AP wire reports, December 1990.

National Weather Service historical records for Elkins, WV, December 24, 1990 — referenced in The Intermountain, 2019.

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