Hypo & hyperthermia 2
The best way to warm a hypothermic patient in the field is ‘kangaroo care’. In a hospital on the mother / baby floors where we have all the toys with bells and whistles to warm newborns we advocate kangaroo care to warm the babies. What is kangaroo care? It is skin to skin contact and then wrapping the parent and baby into blankets. Kangaroo care works great for adults too. Get the patient naked and into the bedroll, one or two non-patients need to strip down too and get in with the patient. The rescuers need to be kept well fed and hydrated as it takes a lot of calories to warm another person.
How do you know that the person has been warmed enough to be fed and given fluids? ;] when they are no longer shaking and are alert enough to ask ‘what are we doing in bed together and where are our clothes?” at this point they will most likely be ok to walk around and take care of themselves.
Several years ago there was an article in the newspaper about a hunter who fell into a creek. He made it back to deer camp where the other campers got him inside, out of the wet cloths, dry and into a sleeping bag. By this time he had stopped shivering according to the reports. What do you have when you put a non-shivering cold person into a sleeping bag alone? You have a well insulated soon to be dead corpse-sickle.
All of this guy’s ‘friends’ were too macho to get in bed with him to save his life.
In most healthcare or first aid situations there is NO place for responders being embarrassed causing inaction when life or limb are at stake.
Frost bite will be discussed as thermal injuries.