Lindsay Clancy’s trial has been revealing more information about her physical condition following her suicide attempt. Dr. Kelly McDonough, an emergency room physician at South Shore Hospital who treated Lindsay, said at the trial that she was hypothermic with a core body temperature of 82.1 degrees Fahrenheit when she arrived.
Experts believe that it is unlikely that Lindsay’s temperature was taken immediately upon arrival as she was in critical condition and required emergency care, People reported. The hospital was located some 20 miles from her home, adding to the time for any cooling.
The Massachusetts mother is facing three counts of murder in the killings of her children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.
Doctor explains how such a low body temperature may have occurred
Dr. Sohaib Imtiaz, chief medical officer at People Inc., has explained how a body temperature as low as 82.1 degrees Fahrenheit could have occurred. He told People that the “healthy range” for body temperature is between 97 and 99 degrees, with slight fluctuations occurring depending on the timing of the day. He added that the extent of Lindsay’s injuries could account for her battling severe hypothermia.
“The reasons why this would’ve happened is, she had a spinal cord injury, which then abolishes her regulatory defenses. Her responses in her body — we call it vasomotor responses — are disrupted so your blood vessels can’t constrict, which is how you conserve heat when it’s cold,” he explained. “When that mechanism isn’t working, the warm blood cannot be retained and body temperature can drop pretty quickly. She’s also losing blood and is in shock, which reduces your heat production naturally.”
Imtiaz also noted that Lindsay was lying on the ground in the snow, and direct contact with a frozen surface could lead to heat loss. He added that an individual’s temperature can continue to drop during transport to the hospital, even when medics are working to rewarm the body.
“When the medical teams start to rewarm, you can have continued cooling because you have this cold, pooled blood in the periphery, and that can lead to external cooling as well,” he said. “So it’s medically coherent for someone who is losing blood, is shocked, a spinal cord injury, lying motionless on a frozen ground, followed by an extra afterdrop during transfer, you can lose that three to five Fahrenheit per hour quite easily.”
Imtiaz said that there has been confusion surrounding this factor because the precise time Lindsay’s temperature was taken is not known. He added that while factors such as her blood loss, spinal cord injury and conduction to frozen ground could explain the temperature, “the physiologically coherent explanation depends on [the] cooling interval.”
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Lindsay was left permanently paralyzed after attempting suicide by jumping from a second-story window on January 24, 2023, the same day she killed her children.
Prosecutors said that after the murders, Lindsay cut her wrists and neck and jumped from a second-story window. She was first taken to South Shore Hospital and then transferred to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for treatment. She had a thoracic spine injury from her fall. However, the cuts on her neck and wrists were considered “superficial,” said McDonough. Physician associate Eitan Negri said that the cuts on Lindsay’s wrists required several sutures.
Once Lindsay was moved to Boston, she went into cardiac arrest and had to be revived with CPR and chest compressions, ICU nurse Rachelle Amedee said. She received several blood transfusions.
Lindsay has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. In case she is found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.