How Lindsay Clancy’s Body Temperature Fell to 82.1 Degrees After Her Fall, According to a Doctor

New testimony in Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial has raised questions about the extraordinarily low body temperature recorded after she jumped from a second-story window following the deaths of her three children.

A medical expert says, however, that the temperature can be medically explained by the combination of Clancy’s severe injuries, blood loss, shock and prolonged exposure to freezing conditions.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, is accused of killing her three children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on Jan. 24, 2023.

Prosecutors allege that she strangled the children with exercise bands before jumping from a second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt.

The fall left Clancy with multiple serious injuries, including spinal damage that resulted in paralysis from the waist down.

Clancy Was Severely Hypothermic

Dr. Kelly McDonough, an emergency room physician who treated Clancy at South Shore Hospital, previously testified that Clancy had a core body temperature of just 82.1 degrees Fahrenheit when she arrived.

A normal body temperature is generally around 97 to 99 degrees, according to Dr. Sohaib Imtiaz, chief medical officer at People Inc., who spoke with PEOPLE about the medical circumstances.

A temperature of 82.1 degrees represents severe hypothermia.

But Imtiaz said the number does not necessarily indicate something unusual had occurred.

According to the doctor, Clancy’s spinal cord injury could have significantly impaired the body’s ability to conserve heat.

“The reasons why this would’ve happened is, she had a spinal cord injury, which then abolishes her regulatory defenses,” Imtiaz explained.

Normally, the body responds to cold by constricting blood vessels near the skin, helping preserve heat. A serious spinal cord injury can interfere with those mechanisms.

Blood Loss and Shock May Have Made the Cooling Worse

Clancy was also suffering from blood loss and shock after the fall.

Those conditions can further reduce the body’s ability to produce and maintain heat.

Imtiaz explained that when circulation and the body’s normal temperature-regulating responses are disrupted, heat can be lost much more rapidly.

There was another significant factor: the ground.

Clancy was found outside after falling from the window and was exposed to freezing conditions.

Direct contact with a frozen surface can accelerate heat loss, particularly when someone is unable to move normally.

The combination of severe injuries, blood loss, shock and exposure therefore provides a plausible medical explanation for the extremely low temperature recorded at the hospital.

Timing of the Temperature Measurement Matters

There is still an important unanswered question surrounding the 82.1-degree reading: exactly when was Clancy’s temperature taken?

She required emergency treatment after being discovered outside, and the hospital was roughly 20 miles from the family home.

Because of the severity of her condition, her temperature may not have been measured immediately upon arrival at the hospital.

That timing matters because the body can continue cooling after a person has been removed from a cold environment.

Imtiaz said the phenomenon can occur even while medical personnel are attempting to rewarm a patient.

He described the process as an “afterdrop,” in which colder blood from the body’s extremities returns toward the core, potentially causing the measured core temperature to fall further.

The Frozen Ground May Have Played a Major Role

According to Imtiaz, Clancy’s circumstances created several simultaneous pathways for heat loss.

She had suffered a major spinal injury, was losing blood, was in shock and had been lying motionless on frozen ground.

Those factors could have worked together to produce a dramatic decline in body temperature.

Imtiaz said that, under such circumstances, a temperature decline of several degrees per hour could be medically possible, depending on the duration of exposure and other conditions.

However, he emphasized that the precise timing remains important when interpreting the 82.1-degree reading.

“The physiologically coherent explanation depends on [the] cooling interval,” he said.

Temperature Becomes Another Point of Interest in the Trial

The discussion surrounding Clancy’s body temperature comes as her defense continues presenting evidence about her physical and psychological condition on the night of the killings.

Her attorneys argue that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and had been overmedicated, leaving her unable to appreciate the nature or consequences of her actions.

Prosecutors have argued that Clancy deliberately killed her children.

The prosecution rested its case after four weeks of testimony from more than 70 witnesses. The defense has since called family members and medical experts, including psychiatrists who have questioned aspects of Clancy’s treatment before the killings.

As testimony continues, the jury is being asked to consider not only what happened inside the Duxbury home, but also Clancy’s physical and psychological condition before, during and immediately after the deaths.