Protective hypothermia is still used in brain and heart surgery, or with certain types of injuries. It isn't as extreme as the method that the Wikipedia article is about, though. Protective hypothermia only drops body temperatures by a few degrees F.
This is the most amazing thing ever because it may point to a metabolic cause instead of a physical one, like a phase change or w/e (I mean, metabolism is physics in the end but you get the point).
And if it turns out to be metabolic, drugs could be made to induce it, in principle.
