Halting Hypothermia
It’s 30 degrees outside and you decided to go outside and do some skiing in this blizzard. You have been outside for hours and you are cold and wet. You could be suffering from hypothermia.
Hypothermia is the dangerous lowering of body temperature. Normal body temperature is about 98.6 degrees. With hypothermia, the core temperature drops below 95. In severe hypothermia, core body temperatures drop to 86 degrees or lower. Normally, the activity of the heart and liver produce the most body heat. But as the core temperature cools, these organs produce less heat. Low body temperature can slow brain activity, breathing and heart rate.
It can happen in relatively mild weather. In fact, most cases of hypothermia occur when the thermometer reads between 30 and 50 degrees.
Immersion in water is the quickest route to hypothermia. A person in icy water might last 10 to 15 minutes before passing out and drowning. But even 50-degree water is unbearably cold, and prolonged immersion in sub-70 degree will eventually take its toll.
Many outdoorsmen refuse to believe that such seemingly mild conditions can be life-threatening. This is one case where experience can be a lethal teacher.
The first defense against hypothermia is understanding how cold affects the body. Learn to recognize the symptoms. Here’s what to expect if your body drops below normal.
First, you would feel cold and voluntarily exercise to stay warm. You might rub your hands together or run in place. Then you would begin to shiver, first mildly, then uncontrollably. Within minutes you would be helpless. Your speech would slur, your memory would fail and you might hallucinate, you’d lose the use of your hands and find it difficult to walk. Finally, you would get drowsy, collapse, and die.
If you understand the seriousness of hypothermia and are prepared for it, you can avoid becoming a statistic.
The best treatment for hypothermia is prevention. Avoid exposure. Stay dry. Carry rain gear. Wet clothing loses most of its insulating value and leads quickly to hypothermia. Wool retains more of its insulating ability when wet than other materials, so make it your winter fabric of choice. If you get wet, stay out of the wind. Even a slight breeze carries heat away from the skin faster than still air.
One of the biggest obstacles we face is psychological. It’s up to you to recognize you are in a dangerous situation and act accordingly. If you find yourself in a potentially hypothermic situation, terminate exposure as soon as you can. Get back to your house, cabin, car or camp.
If you are too far from shelter (and in a hypothermic state 100 yards can be too far), get out of the wind and rain and build a fire. If you started shivering, build a fire immediately. After you enter the violent shiver stage, you will be unable to help yourself. A fire will be your friend and salvation, so carry waterproof matches.
If you are with a friend who has hypothermia, treat the symptoms, regardless what the victim says. Often a hypothermic person denies he or she is in trouble. Get him out of the wind and rain. Take off his wet clothes. If the person is conscious and coherent, give him warm fluids, get him into dry clothes, and wrap him into a warm sleeping bag. Then get him to a doctor.
If the person is losing consciousness, his condition is critical and requires immediate emergency attention. Get him to a hospital, warming him en route. If that is impossible, try to keep the person awake and give him warm fluids. Body heat from another person may be your best bet. Get another person in the sleeping bag with him. Skin to skin contact is the most effective emergency treatment of serious hypothermia.
If the person is unconscious, CPR should be administered at once and should continue until paramedics arrive. In some cases of advanced hypothermia, hospital treatment is required to rewarm the core temperature.
The best solution to hypothermia is to avoid it. And to prepare for outings by remembering the mnemonic COLD:
C is for cover up; Wear a hat and warm clothing. Wear mittens. They work better than gloves because the fingers keep each other warm.
O is for overexertion; if you sweat a lot, you lose body heat. In cold weather, the sweating may not be obvious.
L is for layers; it is important to wear them. Layers should include clothing made from polypropylene is a wise choice for the first layer. It wicks heat-robbing moisture (sweat) away from the skin.
D is for dry, meaning stay as dry as possible. If you get wet, get indoors and change into dry clothes. D is also for dehydration, which can make you more vulnerable to hypothermia, so stay hydrated.
Hypothermia is preventable. So enjoy the snow but remember to bundle up yourself and your loved ones.
