On 23 Jan 2002 at 11:25, David Strike wrote:


>
> It was an enjoyable 74-minutes - but I still couldn't wait to warm up under
> a cold shower! :-)
>
> Strike

Jeez, what a wimp!  :-)

In all seriousness though, we had a training session for our SAR team
this past weekend that dealt with cold water drownings. One of the things
that has been discovered is that the skin is very susceptible to burns
after being submerged in very cold water. There was a very graphic
image of a young girl that had been rescued and revived after drowning
in near freezing water. Hot packs were used to attempt to warm her after
she began breathing again. The packs caused 3rd degree burns on the
childs body where they were placed. The recommendation now is to get
any wet clothes off quickly and replace them with dry stuff and to wrap
the victim in lots of warm blankets, etc but not to use heat packs or warm
water or warm liquids to attempt to reheat.

It was also noted that once removed from the water, and dried the body
will continue to loose core temp for up to 20 minutes and any type
strenuous activity during this time can kill the victim, again. The
recommendation is to keep the victim prone and closely watched until
the core temp is back to near normal.

Also of note for us COBS on the list, our survival rate is pretty abysmal
in cold water drownings and near drownings. The survival starts to drop
drastically after about 10 years of age.

Another interesting point is that once immersed in cold water, young
children tend to die first, women second and men last. If recovered within
an hour of being submerged the survival rates are exactly reversed. The
youngsters survive more readily followed by women, then the men.

It was an interesting way to kill a few hours on Sunday. :-)




__
Mike Wallace
Huntsville,Ala