NEW ORLEANS -- More than 1 million people suffer a heart attack every year in America but doctors hope a new tool will help patients in the New Orleans area gain an added advantage when it comes to recovery.

It all has to do with making the patient as cold as ice.

“My life seems like it kind of went into a haze on the 12th or the 13th, next thing you know on the 24th I'm awake; thinking what am I doing here,” said Steve Benton, 53, who suffered a heart attack and was in a coma for six days.

The doctors who treated Benton put him in the Thermosuit, an inflatable device that could help to save the lives of heart attack victims.

Doctors said that to use the system, the Thermosuit is rolled out on a gurney, the patient is placed on it and then the suit is filled up with water and ice.

The patient is kept in the device for 20-30 minutes, until the core body temperature is lowered to 90 degrees.

The hope is to prevent as much damage to the brain as possible, doctors said.

For Benton, the Thermosuit did the trick. Since the procedure, doctors put a stent in his heart to repair a blocked artery.