Woman brain-dead after Paris cryotherapy session goes wrong
A nitrogen leak in a closed space could lead to oxygen depletion
A woman injured during a fatal cryotherapy session at a gym in France’s capital earlier this week is now brain-dead, the prosecutor’s office said on Friday.
The client, in her early thirties, was admitted to hospital in a critical condition after the accident late on Monday claimed the life of an employee in her late twenties.
The client has been brain-dead since Thursday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
An autopsy on the first victim showed she suffocated due to a lack of oxygen, it added, which might confirm the theory of a nitrogen leak into the cryotherapy chamber.
Cryotherapy uses vaporised liquid nitrogen or nitrous oxide to lower the skin’s surface temperature to below minus 100 degrees Celsius (minus 148 Fahrenheit) for a recommended time of no more than three minutes.
Nitrogen is a colourless, odourless gas. It makes up around 80 per cent of the air we breathe, while oxygen accounts for 20 per cent.