Being hypothermic or having frostbite on any part of your body can be very dangerous. This is an interesting topic because it can happen to anyone at anytime and if your are not prepared for it, it can be life threatening. If you are just going out to play in the snow and you are not dressed warm enough or all your skin is not covered frostbite can develop and you are at risk of hypothermia. Even if it is not snowing and there is not a cloud in the sky you can develop hypothermia if it is cold enough. If you are going to go hiking or skiing you will want to be aware of what hypothermia is and what to do if you get frostbite as this can result in the amputation of limbs and fingers. When skiing up in Vermont over Christmas break while going down the mountain my fingers started hurting and they were very cold. My dad and I were going down to the base of mountain, it was our final run of the day. We were skiing in negative 20 degree weather. This sparked my interest in hypothermia and frostbite because if we had not decided to get off the mountain frostbite developed on my hands and fingers and I would have run the risk of maybe getting them amputated. The purpose of writing this paper is to show how dangerous and lethal hypothermia and frostbite are if not taken care of properly.
Frostbite occurs when your body's survival mechanism kicks in during extremely cold weather. Your body cuts back circulation from your extremities such as your hands, feet, and nose to keep your vital organs and inside of your body warm. When these parts of your body are exposed to the cold they receive less warm blood and eventually freeze. First degree frostbite occurs when ice crystals begin forming on your skin. Second degree frostbite is when your ski...
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...warming protect any affected body part from direct pressure and ensure the patient is well-hydrated. Do not rub frostbitten skin, attempt to rewarm using a fire or stove, rewarm if there is any possibility of refreezing, and allow the tissue to refreeze if it is successfully thawed (Simon, Bryan).
Being hypothermic or having frostbite on any parts of your body can be very dangerous. It is very easy to get caught off guard and not be prepared for the effects to your body that hypothermia and frostbite create. If not handled properly you could have limbs amputated or you could even die. The statements made throughout this paper have told us how to treat and prevent hypothermia. They have also told us how to be wary of frostbite and the damage it can do to our bodies. Be aware of hypothermia and frostbite anywhere you go and never get caught of guard and unprepared.
Maintaining normal core body temperature (normothermia) in patients within perioperative environments is both a challenging and important aspect to ensure patient safety, comfort and positive surgical outcomes (Tanner, 2011; Wu, 2013; Lynch, Dixon & Leary, 2010). Normorthermia is defined as temperatures from 36C to 38C, and is maintained through thermoregulation which is the balance between heat loss and heat gain (Paulikas, 2008). When normothermia is not maintained within the perioperative environments, and the patient’s core body temperature drops below 36C, they are at risk of developing various adverse consequences due to perioperative hypothermia (Wagner, 2010). Perioperative hypothermia is classified into three
The normal core temperature in adults ranges between 36.5°C and 37.5°C and hypothermia can be defined as core body temperature less than 36°C.(ref 1)
There I was, stumbling watery-eyed through Minneapolis' whipping sub-zero winds. I'd lost feeling in my lower extremities. Frosted saliva dotted my cheeks as I gasped for air.
On Christmas day as they were traveling through the Dawson trail in the Arctic, Cap mentioned the cold. He says that sometimes it was so cold that your lashes froze. Cap describes it by saying, “Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail” (Service 709). It was so cold that your skin feels the pricking that is felt when jumping into a cold pool. Although Cap did not make his promise to Sam McGee, yet one can assumed that the weather would still be cold after the promise was made. He faces the bitter cold while finding a place to cremate his friend. Later on in the narrative poem, the body of Sam McGee that was tied to the sled caused more weight for the dogs to pull. The “ [...] dogs were spent and the grub was getting low” (Service 711). McGee’s promise caused the dogs to get tired faster having to pull the extra weight. The food was getting low and Cap couldn’t do anything about it, because he couldn’t get to a village or town quickly with the body of his friend weighing down the sled, and the meager amount of food cause him to have little energy. Set on keeping his promise, Cap refuses to leave the body of his comrade in the cold arctic, resulting in him having to face the severity of his
The simplest answer is that the antifreeze doesn’t allow the icefish’s blood to freeze in the cold temperature hence the name
There are many factors that contribute to staying alive in this environment such as natural ones that include altitude, temperature, weather, mountain conditions that end up creating physical and psychological issues for the human specimen. A combination of experience, modern technology and on-feet thinking is used to bypass these factors. Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain peaking into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere at 8848 metres above sea level. At this level of altitude the weather is drastically different to the normal ground-level weather a human would be familiar to. Freezing winds over 160km/h are a constant hassle that impact the visibility and temperature. With temperature always below minus 50 degrees Celsius and a lack of oxygen by 14%, this becomes difficult for the climber to function physically and psychologically which lead to numerous medical conditions such as headaches, edema, frostbite, confusion, nausea, chest problems which is also usually related to dehydration. To keep the winds out of the climbers’ face they wear glacier glasses with side covers and synthetic bandanas with a balaclava, ski goggles and a baseball cap. This helps the block out the wind and cold enabling the climber to see much more efficiently in winds rushing at their face. Layering is a technique that prevents the human body from freezing to death. It involves of wearing layers of lightweight fleece, synthetic zip-up jackets and insulated synthetic pants. These clothing are designed to insulate the human body by keeping the human body’s warmth within the walls of the clothing. The same material is used to make the sleeping bags which the climbers use. Other mountain conditions
To begin I would like to talk about Altitude sickness, or Acute Mountain Sickness. I will define altitude sickness, talk about the symptoms, how to prevent altitude sickness, and how to treat it. I will then talk about what untreated altitude sickness can lead to.
As practitioners in the Orthotics and Prosthetic field we owe our patients not only our skills of mind and hand, but also the encouragement to live their lives to the fullest. We want them to have a life worth living in spite of whatever physical difficulties they possess. There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of the lesser known is adaptive snow sports.
Cold injuries can occur at temperatures up to 60 degrees! So don’t think just because it’s not freezing you can’t be a victim.
A cold foot below the site of the ankle injury. This can occur if the blood vessels passing through your injured ankle were also damaged.
“John first took leftover prescription painkillers and numbed his left foot in ice water to reduce impending pain. He then buried his foot in dry ice for six hours to induce severe frostbite and force surgeons to operate” (Adams, 2007).
A blast of adrenaline charges throughout my body as I experience the initial drop. My body's weight shifts mechanically, cutting the snow in a practiced rhythm. The trail curves abruptly and I advance toward a shaded region of the mountain. Suddenly, my legs chatter violently, scraping against the concealed ice patches that pepper the trail. After overcompensating from a nearly disastrous slip, balance fails and my knees buckle helplessly. In a storm of powder snow and ski equipment, body parts collide with nature. My left hand plows forcefully into ice, cracking painfully at the wrist. For an eternity of 30 seconds, my body somersaults downward, moguls of ice toy with my head and further agonize my broken wrist. Ultimately veering into underbrush and pine trees, my cheeks burn, my broken wrist surging with pain. Standing up confused, I attempt climbing the mountain but lose another 20 feet to the force of gravity.
However, there is a lot of damage done to the body during this freezing, says Dr. Ralph Merkle, a professional in the field of cryonics. First there are fractures that form in the frozen tissues caused by thermal strain, if you were warmed up you’d fall into pieces as if cut by thousands of sharp knives. And Second, the Cryotransport is used as a last resort because legally the Cryotransport can’t even begin until the patient is legally dead. So when the patient comes out he is already sick and may have a hard time coming back from the injuries of being frozen. Even after knowing all this Dr. Merkle says Cryotransport will almost surely work. Why? He says because basically people are made up of molecules and if they are arranged right then the person is healthy, if not the person is either sick or dead. With technological advances he thinks we will be able to make and rearrange the molecular structure of the frozen tissue. In the future, we will be able to stack and unstack these molecules like Lego blocks. Once the molecules are arranged correctly the person is healthy.
OUCH! My leg crippled with pain. I tried to shuffle my way to the window, but it was excruciating. As my senses kicked back in, I felt pains shooting up and down my body. Peering down at my hands I screamed. My hands were covered in cold, congealed blood.
Hypothermia, an older treatment, is the treatment of utilizing heat to treat cancer, but had commixed results. Hyperthermia denotes a body temperature that is higher than mundane. High body temperatures are often caused by illnesses, such as fever or heat stroke. But hyperthermia can additionally refer to heat treatment, the conscientiously controlled utilization of heat for medical purposes. Here, we will fixate on how heat is utilized to treat cancer. When cells in the body are exposed to higher than mundane temperatures, changes take place inside the cells. Very high temperatures can kill cancer cells outright, but they additionally can injure or kill mundane cells and tissues. This is why hyperthermia must be punctiliously controlled and should be done by medicos who are experienced in utilizing it. The conception of utilizing heat to treat cancer has been around for some time, but early endeavors had commixed results. For instance, it was hard to maintain the right temperature in the right area while inhibiting the effects on other components of the body. But today, more incipi...