Seven children were all ‘brought back from the dead’ after they ‘died’ on school trip went wrong

Seven teenagers were extraordinarily 'brought back from the dead' despite the fact their hearts stopped beating for hours after they plunged into an icy fjord.

In February 2011, a host of students clambered onboard a dragon boat while out on the water north of Præstø in Denmark during a school trip.

At 11am, 13 students and two teachers set sail - but just 20 minutes later, their boat capsized due to powerful winds, sending everyone onboard into the water, which was just 2C.

Hundreds of metres from land and without any means of communication, chaos unfolded as hypothermia quickly took effect.

In a 2019 documentary by the BBC, the seven survivors who were remarkably revived hours later revealed what happened during their ordeal.

"It was so freezing, it was so cold," Katrine, who was just 16 at the time of the incident, said. "And there was ice on the water."

The schoolkids and their teachers fell into the icy water when the boat capsized (BBC)

Her classmate and fellow survivor, Casper, added: "It was hard weather. It was very windy. The boat flipped in the middle of the sea, then all the people fell out."

The pair explained that 'everyone was screaming' as the vessel capsized, while Katrine told how she ended up underneath the boat.

"When I came up from the water, the nightmare began," she said. "Everything was like, unreal. You could just see the panic.

"The teacher said that we had to swim in, because otherwise we would die. It was really hard, because you didn't have any strength in your legs. And I kept falling down. In that moment, that was where I thought: 'Ok, now I'm going to die'."

"Then, I saw the man. Thank god for that. When I saw him, I was screaming so loud," Katrine said, explaining that she had eventually made it to shore.

Casper also recalled how he 'couldn't swim' in the icy water, prompting one of his school pals to rush over to try and help him.

"But after a short time, I was clinically dead because of the temperature of the water," he said.

Katrine managed to swim back to shore despite thinking she was doomed (BBC)

One of their heroic classmates had made it to dry land at this point, and had ran a mile to alert emergency services to the school trip disaster.

Dr Steen Barnung, who was a part of the rescue team, explained that they rushed to the site in a helicopter and were greeted by a male who 'repeated the same words'.

He told the emergency responder: "They're all dead, they're all dead, they're all dead."

It had been two hours since the children's hearts stopped beating and their skin was 'ice cold' to the touch - but Dr Michael Jaegar Wansche explained he knew there was a chance they could be saved.

The medic, who tended to the youngsters upon their arrival at the hospital, said in the documentary: "When you're as cold as they were, we know we can resuscitate. They are dead, but they're not really dead. We still had a chance."

Although the extreme hypothermia the schoolchildren suffered had stopped their hearts, it also slowed their metabolism, meaning their organs started working when their bodies warmed up.

Casper's core body temperature plunged to 17.5C and his heart stopped beating for several hours (BBC)

"At that point, we aimed at warming the blood one degree per 10 minutes," Dr Wansche said. "[Casper] recovered and had his normal heart rhythm back around 26 degrees. The main focus from then on was the brain."

Six hours after the incident, seven of the children's hearts began beating again - with Katrine describing scenes of jubilation in the hospital corridors.

"You can't describe the feeling," she said. "Everyone was so happy, because everybody awoke that day. Every parent was in the waiting room and we just got out of there and screamed and jumped.

"It was so filled with laughter and happiness because everybody was waking up."

Looking at an image of himself in a coma before he regained consciousness, Casper said: "It's weird to see yourself lying there...pretty much dead."

Despite fears that the students may have suffered damage to their brains due to the lack of oxygen, Dr Wansche said there were 'no abnormalities' seen in their scans.

"And that is amazing," he added. "This is the largest number of accidents of hypothermic victims that have been resuscitated all at once. And with 100% survival."

Despite recovering physically, Katrine confessed she has suffered from 'breakdowns' since the 2011 tragedy.

She explained: "When you have nearly died, it's just...it is a little different. I have learnt what's important and what's not important. What is worth fighting for. I'm really happy that I'm alive. It's hard to explain, because you were so close to losing it [life]. But, now you know you have it."

One of the teachers, who was not wearing a lifejacket, did not survive the incident and their body was found in the water several weeks later.

According to TV 2 East, management at the school were charged with manslaughter as a result, which culminated with the headmaster being sentenced to 60 days in prison.

He was also banned from teaching any activities on water for three years, according to reports, while the school also received a hefty fine.