There is a saying that goes "You're not dead until you're warm and dead.". There are many documented cases where hypothermia actually saved the lives of drowning people, by strongly reducing the metabolism until rescue.
> “There was massive overpressurization of a cockpit on the flight deck that essentially caused my lungs to explode and collapse,” he said in a recent telephone interview.
Kind of terrifying that that can happen, but equally incredible that the body can recover so well.
How does that woman not suffer irreversible neurological damages after 4 hours without oxygen?
Hypothermia. You use far less oxygen if your metabolism has essentially ground to a halt.
Part (or much? it's not clear) of that time, rescuers were performing CPR on her, working her heart and lungs for her, so she didn't go that entire span entirely without oxygen.