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Safety experts estimate that half of all drowning
victims actually die from the fatal effects of cold water, or hypothermia,
and not from water-filled lungs. Loss of body heat is one of the
greatest hazards to survival when you fall overboard, capsize, or jump
into the water. Cold water robs the body of heat 25-30 times faster
than air. When you lose enough body heat to make your temperature
subnormal, you become hypothermic.
Sudden immersion in cold water cools your skin and
outer tissues very quickly. Within 10 or 15 minutes, your core body
temperature (brain, spinal cord, heart, and lungs) begins to drop.
Your arms and legs become numb and completely useless. You may lose
consciousness and drown before your core body temperature drops low enough
to cause death.
Cold water does not have to be icy; it just has to
be colder than you are to cause hypothermia. It can, and does, occur
even in the warmer waters of Florida and the Bahamas (click
to view hypothermia chart)
- Small people cool faster than large people do
and children cool faster than adults do. The rate of body heat
loss depends on water temperature, the protective clothing worn,
percent body fat, other physical factors like alcohol in the blood,
and most importantly, the way you behave in the water.
- Different activities in the water consume
varying amounts of body heat. The more energy (heat) you
expend the quicker your body temperature drops, reducing your
survival time.
- Personal Flotation Device's (PFD's) can help
you stay alive longer in cold water. You can float without
using energy and they cover part of your body thereby providing some
protection from the cold water. When boating in cold water,
you should consider using a floatation coat or deck-suit style
PFD. They cover more of your body and provide even more
protection.
- Conservation of heat is the foremost objective
for a person in the water. To accomplish this, limit body
movement. Don't swim unless you can reach a nearby boat or
floating object. Swimming lowers your body temperature and
even good swimmers can drown in cold water.
- If you can pull yourself partially out of the
water, do so. The more of your body that is out of the water
(on top of an overturned boat or anything that floats), the less
heat you will lose. Especially keep your head out of the water
if at all possible, this will lessen heat loss and increase survival
time.
- Wearing a PFD in the water is the key to
survival. A PFD allows you to float with minimum of energy
expended and allows you to assume the heat escape lessening position
(H.E.L.P). This position, commonly referred to as the fetal
position, permits you to float effortlessly and protect those areas
most susceptible to heat loss including the armpits, sides of the
chest, groin, and the back of the knees. If you find yourself
in the water with others, you should huddle as a group to lessen
heat loss.
- Any person pulled from cold water should be
treated for hypothermia. Symptoms include intense shivering,
loss of coordination, mental confusion, cold and blue (cyanotic)
skin, weak pulse, irregular heartbeat, and enlarged pupils.
Once shivering stops, core body temperature begins to drop
critically. Try to to prevent further body cooling and take
the victim to a medical facility immediately.
- Gently move the victim to warm shelter
- Check breathing and heartbeat. Start
cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if necessary.
- Remove victim's clothes with minimum body
movement; cut them away if necessary.
- Lay the victim in a level, face-up position
with a blanket or other insulation underneath, and continuously
monitor airway and breathing.
- Wrap victim in a blanket or other warm
cloth
- If medical treatment is delayed, use these
gentle re-warming techniques:
- Apply heat pads or hot water bottles under
the blanket to the head, neck, chest, and groin. Be
careful not to burn the victim's skin.
- DO NOT apply heat to arms and
legs. This forces cold blood in arms and legs back toward
the beating heart, lungs, and brain, lowering core body
temperature and causing "after drop", which can be
fatal.
- DO NOT massage or give hot
baths. Rough handling may cause cardiac arrest.
- Apply your own body warmth by direct
body-to-body contact. Wrap blanket around you and the
victim.
- DO NOT give food or drink to
unconscious victims.
- NEVER give alcohol to a hypothermia
victim.
- Drownproofing is a warm-water survival
technique. To conserve energy, relax in the water and allow
your head to submerge between breaths. This technique is NOT
RECOMMENDED in cold water, since about 50% of heat loss is from
the head.
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