By ninemsn staff and wires
In an extraordinary story of survival, a Japanese man has survived on a mountain for three weeks without food or water after entering a hibernation-like state.
When Mitsutaka Uchikoshi was discovered by a passing climber on Mount Rokko this October, his body temperature had dropped to 22 degrees and his pulse was barely discernible.
Uchikoshi went missing after a work barbecue on October 7. He reportedly left the function and walked down the mountain alone, before falling into a nearby stream and breaking his pelvis.
"On the second day, the sun was out, I was in a field, and I felt very comfortable. That's my last memory," Uchikoshi, 35, told reporters on Tuesday before returning home from Kobe hospital. "I must have fallen asleep after that."
Doctors believe Uchikoshi went into a state of hibernation that helped him stay alive as temperatures on the mountain dropped.
"He fell into a state similar to hibernation and many of his organs slowed, but his brain was protected," said Dr. Shinichi Sato, head of the hospital's emergency unit.
"I believe his brain capacity has recovered 100 percent."
Experts are unsure how Uchikoshi managed to achieve hibernation, and stay alive as his metabolism slowed to near-standstill.
"This case is revolutionary if the patient truly survived at such a low body temperature over such a long period of time," said Hirohito Shiomi, a hibernation expert at Fukuyama University.
"Researchers would have to clarify whether Uchikoshi's body temperature dropped very quickly, or whether he started losing body heat much later and was in fact dying when rescuers found him."
Doctors expect Uchikoshi to make a full recovery.
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