Everyone involved in rescue situations should read this article about suspension trauma . It points out great dangers with common misunderstandings about the dangers of suspension trauma and is a pretty good collection of the papers that have been published on the topic. It is not uncommon to hear that there are anecdotal stories of people being fine and not suffering from suspension trauma. There are also plenty of criticisms about the methodologies and whether they apply to climbing harnesses. I'd prefer not to be the case that proves it does apply.