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Life Guide U.S. essentials
English

Shivering, slurred speech and an unsteady walk mean hypothermia: change out of wet clothes, wrap the person up, warm the trunk first, and give hot sweet drinks but no alcohol

  • High value
  • Evidence B
  • Buys life
  • Costs a little
  • Takes minutes
  • No willpower

In a real emergency, call 911 first, then read this.

In plain words

A body temperature below 35℃ is hypothermia, and the person shivers, slurs speech, walks unsteadily and can't think clearly. Change out of wet clothes, wrap the person in a foil blanket or dry clothes, and warm the trunk first, not the hands and feet first. Give hot sweet drinks and no alcohol, because alcohol suppresses shivering. Stopping shivering is not improvement but getting worse. If the person is unconscious, do CPR.

Cost

An aluminum foil blanket costs a few CNY, plus a spare set of dry clothes. Learning the signs is free.

What you get

The original from the U.S. National Weather Service: a body temperature below 95°F (35°C) is hypothermia, and "if you feel cold, slow or unable to think clearly, see a doctor at once." The handling is "get medical care at once, move the person indoors to a heated place, and begin rewarming from the center of the body," giving hot drinks. "Alcohol reduces shivering," so don't drink it. "If the person loses consciousness, do CPR." For frostbite, rewarm with warm water or body heat, and "do not use hot water or radiant heat such as a fireplace." The Wilderness Medical Society's 2019 hypothermia guideline is the practice guideline for this field

Notes

Don't rub the hands and feet. Don't put the person in a hot bath. Don't drag or haul them roughly, since the heart of a person with severe hypothermia can easily stop. Don't take "they stopped shivering" as improvement: no more shivering (shivering stops) is getting worse. The full text of the Wilderness Medical Society guideline requires a subscription, and only the abstract was checked this time.

Evidence grade
B : Supported by research but without a precise number, or based on small or single studies.
Sources
  1. US National Weather Service. During Extreme Cold. https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-during
  2. Dow J 等 (2019). Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Out-of-Hospital Evaluation and Treatment of Accidental Hypothermia: 2019 Update. Wilderness & Environmental Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wem.2019.10.002

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 13, tip 28. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer