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Environmental · Chapter 25 Not started
Cold-Related Emergencies
Hypothermia and frostbite — the patrol's home-turf emergencies, and the ones easiest to underestimate.
Key points
- Hypothermia is a core temperature below 95°F (35°C). Mild: shivering, clumsiness, poor judgment. Severe: shivering stops, consciousness fades, pulse and breathing slow.
- Cessation of shivering in a cold patient is deterioration, not improvement.
- Handle severely hypothermic patients gently — rough movement can trigger ventricular fibrillation in a cold heart.
- Treatment: stop heat loss (shelter, remove wet clothing, insulate above and below, vapor barrier), warm sweet drinks only if fully alert; active external warming to the trunk per protocol.
- 'No one is dead until warm and dead': cold patients with no apparent pulse get careful pulse checks and resuscitation continued through rewarming per protocol.
- Frostbite: never rub the tissue and never thaw if refreezing is possible; superficial frostnip can be warmed skin-to-skin; deep frostbite is a hospital problem.
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