Anatomy of a Disaster: Hypothermia

The sea is full of all kinds of hazards and dangers. A Mariner puts his life on the line every time he leaves the pier. One of these many dangers is the silent and slow killer, Hypothermia. In this new series Anatomy of a Disaster I will break down those dangers, what they how, how they happen, and most importantly what to do when faced with them. First up will be Hypothermia. Enjoy, and stay alive out there, shipmates.

Works Cited:
U.S. Coast Guard's National Ice Rescue Trainer's School

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[Cheryltwin]

I suffered hypothermia in 1991, after my car went into a ditch during a snowstorm. This was in the days before cell phones. The first thing I did was to try to walk to a nearby home to call for help. Unfortunately, the snow was coming down so hard and it was wet snow so I got bogged down pretty fast. Realizing this wasn't going to work, I walked the mile or so back to my car (having momentarily lost it because it was white and now snow covered). I got back in and prepared to hunker down to await help. I had blankets and water in my backseat, something friends always laughed at me about, and a full tank of gas. I ran the motor only sporadically, when I felt the coldest and limited my water (mostly because I was afraid of wetting myself and making myself even colder). I ran the radio to keep myself alert because I knew if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake back up. My family knew where I had been and were expecting me home before dark. Surely, when it got late enough, someone would come looking for me. At that time, I weighed 165 pounds and was 5'9" so I had some body fat to help me out there. But as the sun set, I started to lose hope. The storm had been a bad one and had come up quickly. I don't remember what time it was, but the sun was coming up when I heard a motor. By this time, I had put on extra socks I kept in my glove box and my water was gone. I was also out of gas. The motor was not from a small vehicle like a snowmobile. I used my forearm to wipe the ice off my window and could see it was a snow plow. He saw me for two reasons: I had tied a red bandana to my radio antenna (something I don't remember doing) and because the plow had an elevated cab. I'm sure that cars drove right passed me without seeing me. Apparently, the plow driver used his radio to call an ambulance. When I got to the hospital, they put warming blankets on me and gave me hot tea to drink. They also gave me warmed saline in an IV. In all, I spent four days in the hospital. I was 30 years old at the time. The doctor said that my age, overall decent health and extra body weight more than likely kept me alive. I did have some coldsnap on my ears and nose, but no frostbite, thank God.

[mattwilliams]

Just a note from the other side of the hypothermia situation, if you find someone so appears to have passed away due to the cold you should still provide CPR while awaiting more advanced medical support to arrive. It may seem pointless at the time but in the medical world you aren’t dead of hypothermia until you’re warm and dead, and people have recovered after shockingly prolonged periods with low core temps and lack of oxygen.

[diekatzefliegt]

The subject matter: 💀🥶
The background music: ☺️🌞😇

[matts.]

I spent a summer working as a canoe/kayak guide in a state park. The park is on a river that is calm 99% of the time, but can be fickle and violent on rare occasions.
The head ranger told me that in the past 10 years, there were over 8 drownings in the park. One of them was a lady who did a triathalon where she biked, ran and then kayaked for 3 or 4 miles each in early March. She turned over a mile and a half from the dock when she was turning back, and died of drowning/hypothermia, after already expending her energy on biking and running.
She didn't tell anyone she was doing this, she went alone, and didn't do research on the fact that the water temperature was below 60 F that day. They found her several days later and several miles downriver.
If only someone was with her, she could have been easily rescued- the park has marine police and there's a coast guard station nearby. The water she drowned in is less than 8 feet deep, because the river is very shallow on our side.
Always pay attention to the water temperature when using personal watercraft- warm weather small watercraft rescues are bad enough, but adding in hypothermia and you could easily have a deadly situation. 60 degrees Fahrenheit is the minimum for canoeing and kayaking safely.

[mbryson]

I fell into the Monterey Bay on a fine, sunny summer day. It took the boat very little time to circle around, but in that maybe 5-10 minutes between going ass over teakettle in and being pulled out I was spastic, chilled to the bone, and ended up with intermittent heart palpitations and vicious headaches for about a week.

I yelled as I went over and thus was missed immediately. I was wearing a good quality lifejacket. Absent one or both of those I likely would have been toast. 57 degrees sounds endurable...until you're immersed in it.

[kevinhekers]

I fell threw some ice when i was ice skating when i was around 12 years old . I can tell you this much those 1000 knifes sound about right luckily a bystander pulled me out and put me in his car and called an ambulance, i tried to get out myself but the ice just kept breaking every time i tried to pull myself up, i was in there for only 5 minutes but it was still very scary and also eye opening to realise how dangerous it can be

[ojosmacabros]

You sound like a seasoned veteran with your presentation, hopefully you get more followers

[Kroggnagch]

Dude I used to think that the cold water couldn’t take the breath from a person when I was quite young. If you also think this, just one time in your life just before the end of the shower when your core is nice and hot turn the water to as cold as you can and let it blast on you. It will actually cause you to breathe differently and very shallow fast breaths will kick all air right out your lungs.

[Lux_Lethal]

The will to survive is extremely important and you can't give up after you've been rescued. My husband was a USCG pilot who did SAR and there were a few times when people died in his helicopter. It would be so disappointing to have finally gotten someone on the way to the hospital for them to "give up." I was told it's like once people think they're ok, and their body isn't running on adrenalin anymore they can just succumb to exhaustion or any injuries they may have.

[MajesticDemonLord]

I watched a documentary about WW2 convoys once, where they talked about if someone fell overboard, the convoy couldn't stop for them.

One Sailor had a story about one such shipmate, who was washed overboard from a Royal Navy ship - his last words (knowing he was already Dead and according to the man being interviewed) where:

"Taxi! Taxi!"

[adstaton]

Don't write off a victim too quickly. In emergency medicine we have a saying, " You're not dead until you are WARM and dead."

[callumr]

Nice choice of music, really gave me Master and Commander vibes with that wave shot at the beginning.

[colemarie]

I LOVE this video, excellent idea to go along with the accidents covered! You should start a small playlist of these, like how to best survive a wreck, how to operate, open or man modern lifeboats (without crew help), etc. There's a lot of ideas.
I'm sure I'm not the only one that thinks about that stuff after watching some disaster video. If a quick survival guide was recommended after a disaster video I'd watch in a heartbeat- you could easily double the amount of your videos watched in one sitting that way.

[clarsach]

Hypothermia causes mental confusion as it advances which leads victims to behave in bizarre ways such as actually removing whatever clothing they might be wearing....lots of hypothermia victims lost in the snow have been found naked with their clothes discarded nearby in a weird paradox

[brumpotungus]

so happy i found your channel!! I have been looking for the maritime equivalent of all those aviation channels. keep up the good work 👍🏽👍🏽

[markstott]

Nice use of Master and Commander music at the start.

[keefyfingers]

These are great. Keep up the good work man and I bet this channel will go far.

[samanthamcgahan]

This was fascinating, but I do know this for sure ... 1 minute in really cold water ... I would be dead within seconds, but I feel a smidgen of hope - I hate hate hate cold with a deep abiding passion!!

[peterf.]

I live in Arizona now and hate cold weather, I get mild hypothermia in winter if the temps are in the 30’s orb40’s, my guess is if I fell into cold water ( having jumped into a lake in Maine I am not doing that willingly the water was 48F in July 😮😮😮) I think I’d freeze rather quickly.

[Dharmarenee]

This was an excellent production and explanation.