After the man was rescued, he told them he had been trapped in the car for 60 days without food and water.
Though miracles happen every day, a man named Peter Skyllberg stunned even doctors because he survived two months inside a car covered in snow. The then-44-year-old was found near the northeastern town of Umeå, Sweden, by two men who were passing by in their snowmobiles, as per Euro News. He was trapped inside his snow-capped car while the temperatures outside dropped to -30C.
On February 17, 2012, the two men spotted a car while going through a forest path that was covered in snow. Initially, they thought the vehicle had been abandoned by someone; however, they still decided to approach it. While they weren't expecting any life in there, they were shocked to see that something moved inside. The men immediately rescued Skyllberg, who, according to his account, was stranded there for 60 days. He was discovered with a sleeping bag, some cigarettes, comic books, and a soda bottle.
As unbelievable as it sounds, he told them that he'd been inside this car since December 19, 2011, and hadn't eaten anything except some snow, a local police officer told the Sweden publication, Aftonbladet. "He could speak a little bit, but was doing really badly." He was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment where doctors wondered how could he possibly be awake and communicating.
Although nobody had witnessed such a thing before, experts seemed to have believed he survived because his car acted as the equivalent of an igloo. Dr Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Noorland's University Hospital, told The Guardian, "This man obviously had good clothes; he's had a sleeping bag and he's been in a car that's been snowed over."
Segerberg further explained how the car conditions were similar to an igloo: "Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0C and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature. Obviously, he has managed to preserve his body temperature or he wouldn't have made it because we humans can't really stand being cooled down." However, he noted that two months without food is definitely unfathomable.
Meanwhile, a second medical expert, Dr. Stefan Branth, hypothesized that another factor that could've contributed to Skyllberg's survival was his body shifting to hibernation mode. "A bit like a bear that hibernates," explained Branth. "Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31°C (87.8°F) which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up."
Fortunately, Skyllberg didn't require any special treatment despite being found in a rather emaciated condition. He remained under observation in a hospital ward and eventually recovered. However, his case remains mysterious as Dr. Segerberg said, "There have been cases of people caught out in the mountains, and if they can dig themselves down in the snow they are able to survive and be found. But there must be something special in this case." A rescuer shared with a local news outlet, "It's just incredible that he's alive considering that he had no food, but also since it's been really cold for some time after Christmas."