30 Minutes Under Ice: The Boy Who Came Back From Death | E219

The CRUX: True Survival Stories

Bleav + Kaycee McIntosh + Julie Henningsen

Society & Culture, Halloween, Wilderness, True Crime, Nature, National, Crime, Documentary

4.0 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In December 1979, 11-year-old Darven Miller fell through the ice on Duncan Creek and remained submerged for nearly 30 minutes before rescuers pulled his lifeless body from the freezing water. What happened next at a small Wisconsin hospital would defy every medical expectation and help rewrite the protocols for cold water drowning survival.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, survivalists. This is the Crux True Survival Story podcast. I'm Casey McIntosh. And I'm Julie
0:14.4	Henningson. And we are medical professionals with a passion for wilderness survival.
0:18.9	Join us as we explore real life survival stories and the critical moments that determine their
0:23.8	outcomes.
0:24.7	Buckle up.
0:25.4	Adventure awaits.
0:26.5	Let's dive into this week's story.
0:30.8	The ice gives way with a sound like a gunshot.
0:34.8	One second, 11-year-old Darwin Miller is sliding across Duncan Creek, the same route he
0:40.3	takes every day to get to school, and the next, he's plunging in water so cold it feels like
0:46.9	a thousand knives stabbing his skin. The shock forces the air from his lungs. Above him, the ice shelf seals over like a trapdoor slamming
0:57.5	shut and everything goes dark. December 13th, 1979, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and the clock is
1:08.0	already ticking. Welcome back to another episode.
1:11.5	I'm Casey McIntosh.
1:13.1	And I'm Julie Henningson.
1:15.1	Today we're diving into one of the most remarkable
1:17.4	cold water drowning survivors ever recorded.
1:21.4	December 1979, a small Wisconsin town
1:25.2	and a case that would challenge everything, doctors thought they knew
1:29.7	about the limits of human survival. A big thanks to listener Brandon Allen from Rigby, Idaho,
1:36.6	who reached out with this story suggestion. Thanks, Brandon. The numbers alone seem impossible.
1:43.8	Nearly 30 minutes submerged under ice. Body temperature of 82
	...

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