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Hypothermia Story: Part 2

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In last week’s column I talked about a young girl who suffered the effects of hypothermia as a result of swimming in the cold beach water. While most of us know the basics of what hypothermia is there is specific information that could be helpful, especially when swimming during the colder months.

The Mayo Clinic describes Hypothermia as “a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature”. This “dangerously low” body temperature starts at 95 degrees and is more severe the lower it gets.

Your system doesn’t work well when the body is at lowered temperatures. If untreated, hypothermia can lead to heart and respiratory system failure. Eventually it can cause death. Sounds scary right? Does this mean that every time your kid starts to shiver he/she is going to have serious problems? Of course not. This may be just an early warning sign for mild hypothermia. Read on..

The first thing your body does when its temperature drops is to shiver. What it’s trying to do is generate heat by causing movement. When swimming, this is the sign that it’s time to warm up. It may be a matter of just sitting in the sand for awhile then jumping back in the water on a warm day. Or when conditions are more serious this is the signal that you need to get out of the water and warm up, now!

Hypothermia is divided into three categories- mild, moderate, and severe.

The symptoms for mild hypothermia include shivering, hunger, nausea, fast breathing, difficulty speaking, slight confusion, lack of coordination, fatigue, and increased heart rate. As your temperature continues to drop and moderate to severe hypothermia kick in. Shivering eventually stops and you’ll start to show clumsiness, slurred speech, confusion (even to the point of trying to remove warm clothing) and eventually loss of consciousness, weak pulse, and slow, shallow breathing. Babies may have bright red, cold skin, low energy and a weak cry.

Warming a person with a more advanced case of hypothermia can be tricky, since you don’t want the cold blood in the extremities to rush to the center of the body. In these cases you want to call 911 for professional help and to move the person as gently as possible in doors. Remove wet clothing and cover them in lots of blankets. Then wait for help to arrive.

Differentiating between mild and more severe cases can at times be difficult so, as always, when in doubt call 911. But for those cases that we all experience where we’re just shivering a little and our body temperature is near normal warm sun and maybe a hot chocolate is just the thing. Then get back out there and keep having fun!

The good news is that the water has risen almost 15 degrees and is now getting in the zone of comfortable swimming. Just remember that even in warm water swimming for long periods of time can still drop your body temperature.

Hypothermia Story

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Many of you probably remember the story from a couple of weeks ago about the little girl who suffered mild hypothermia after swimming in the beach water on a day when the water was 58 degrees over Spring Break. I was fortunate to have a long conversation the other day with her mother and found out there was much more to the story than we originally thought.

The details will be of interest to all parents who take their children swimming in the cooler months. From what I gather the mother and father of the little girl didn’t do anything different than any reasonable and careful parent would do- and they still had a pretty close call.

The family stayed at a hotel on the seawall. The dad took their 12 year old girl across the street to the beach. I can’t remember exactly what she said, but sounds like there may have been another kid or kids involved. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day and they set up on the beach while the girl went swimming. She was in the water for about half an hour and then came out chilled. She’s a thin and very athletic girl without a lot of body mass. Dad brought her back to the hotel and the kids were playing in the heated pool and then went to the hot tub to re-warm since the girl was still cold.

The parents became concerned when the girl couldn’t warm back up. Her hands stayed white and she was blue around the mouth. At one point the girl lost vision. Rescuers were called and stayed with her until she warmed back up and was feeling back to normal.

Upon hearing the mom’s account directly I was struck by how this story had an almost serious outcome even though the parents did nothing irresponsible. It’s rare that we have a sunny day in the 70’s while the water is so cold. Normally people that swim in cold water warm back up easily. The combination of the girl’s body composition and water temperature were no doubt contributing factors. My guess is that she was having so much fun and the air temperature was so warm that she didn’t pay attention to warning signs as they developed. It’s also probably rare that she swims in water that cold, so neither she nor her parents realized her limits. People vary greatly in how resistant to hypothermia they are. There are many contributing factors so the same person swimming in the same temperature on two different days may react differently.

The problem and danger here is that the way you treat mild hypothermia versus more severe cases varies considerably. Normal things we all do to warm back up when we experience normal mild hypothermia can actually be dangerous for more severe cases.

Fortunately, this case ended up fine and was merely a learning experience and a chance to warn other parents how to avoid a similar incident. Stay tuned for a follow up with more specific information…

Hypothermia

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Last Monday night around 7pm a 911 call came through the city dispatch of someone jumping off of the causeway. We responded along with the Fire, Police, and EMS. Josh Hale joined the “unified command” on top of the causeway while Kara Harrison and Kris Pompa launched our boat and searched under the bridge with spotlights and sonar. Fortunately it was a false alarm.

People attempting suicide by jumping off of the causeway or swimming out into the ocean are not uncommon and we work several of these cases each year. People that are in this type of mental state are, obviously, not thinking rationally. But there is often this sort of romanticized version of ending your life in the ocean. The ocean brings many of us peace. I assume this must be in the back of peoples’ minds when they start driving south on I-45. Or maybe we’re just at the end of the road.

Dealing with people who are in an unstable state of mind is very dangerous for emergency responders. Add water and that danger increases exponentially. It’s an easy thing for a would-be rescuer to drown because they were incapacitated by a blow to the neck or elsewhere. Peace officers can’t use their normal tools of the trade while submerged. For that reason we take these calls seriously and try to take precautions like approaching in a group or not entering the water unless it’s a truly life threatening emergency.

That said, a large percentage of these cases change their minds pretty quickly when they hit the water which changes the situation into a potential rescue.

A huge factor in winter rescue work is that of potential hypothermia. Web MD defines hypothermia as “…a potentially dangerous drop in body temperature, usually caused by prolonged exposure to cold temperatures.” Medically speaking, hypothermia starts when your core temperature drops below 95 and is defined as “severe” at or below 86. The reason it’s such an issue for us is because people can become disoriented and make bad choices pretty early on in the process.

The year round Beach Patrol staff is equipped with wetsuits and train regularly in cold water. We don’t want to become victims ourselves. We know our limits and make sure we are prepared when we enter the water. Most people don’t. Hypothermia occurs even in mild conditions. We often see mild hypothermia in the summer. Basically it’s just a matter of how much heat escapes your body and how rapidly. Factors that affect when an individual will become hypothermic are a person’s age, body mass, body fat, overall health, and length of time exposed to cold temperatures. About 90% of heat loss is from your skin and the rest occurs when you exhale. Water greatly accelerates the process.

No matter the time of year it’s important that you self-monitor. If you start to shiver, that’s your body trying to maintain its core temp.

Time to make a good choice. Warm up and dry off!

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*Image courtesy of the 9th Coast Guard District’s Blog

http://greatlakes.coastguard.dodlive.mil/2013/04/hypothermia-kills-these-tips-can-save-your-life/