Hypothermia, a sexy seductive pleasant/painless death, in wilderness.
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Better than being eaten by a Griz ! hihi
First, allow me to congratulate you on being the first member to express a solid interest in this subject. There is much that you did not inquire about reference the whole experience, so I'll confine my reply to your question.
It starts very slowly, you are not aware anything is transpiring differently in your body, in fact you never truly are aware what is happening. (There are two ways to shed light on this, one from the prospective of the observer, the other from the prospective of the person experiencing hypothermia).
The observer starts to notice confusing behavior, they are bewildered as to what is happening. It appears the victim is "Drunk", slurring their speech, staggering, confused, totally in la-la land, they are oblivious of anything, victim is not alarmed. To the observer (unless they have substantial experience with this, they assume the victim has booze in their canteen, and has been getting drunk seven miles from camp.
To the victim they experience "NO" fear, "NO" cause for concern. They are oblivious to what is happening. They get progressively tired. (This is the pivot point) They become slowly seduced into simply setting down and going to sleep. Their body and brain is shutting down. (At this point I have experienced a soothing sexy female voice, saying surrender to sleep, all I need is sleep, just relax and take a "short" nap, it is very seductive, very sultry).
Clearly at this point the easy default choice is to surrender and take a short nap. Which at the first experience with this I started to do. (Should be noted here that the first time experiencing this, I was alone on the Robertson Glacier, Alaska). I actually sat down and started to nap, then realizing that I would never ever wake-up, that that would only lead to guaranteed death. Mustering all strength, I staggered on, falling and falling, constantly being seduced to nap and sleep. Finally at near dark, I by "pure" luck (zero skill) observed "someone's" camp down in a shelf inside a cavass. Slowly realized it was my camp. (This is only 1/5 of what happened).
Wow, interesting. In general, death can look a lot like falling asleep. My mom is in the final stages of congestive heart failure and she's sleeping quite a lot. Even when she's awake it's appears as though she's half asleep. She's not on any pain meds at this time.
@Soudough, the voices calling you remind me of the sailors being called into the sea by sirens.
When you heard the voices, were they--or did they--actually appear as though they were really auditory, or were they in your mind? I'm interested because mom has thought there were other people in the room a couple times when there were not.
@Soudough, the voices calling you remind me of the sailors being called into the sea by sirens.
When you heard the voices, were they--or did they--actually appear as though they were really auditory, or were they in your mind? I'm interested because mom has thought there were other people in the room a couple times when there were not.
In my mind, but very real, and very seductive. Like death beaconing, with a voice disguised as sultry female voice. It went on & on & on soliciting me to come.
Most of my other experience has been as the person responsible for others, generally hunting clients or assistant hunting guides (sometimes both). It is very easy to know what is wrong with others experiencing hypothermia. It can be hell attempting to convince them what is happening to them, as they have zero awareness of what is happening, and are in total denial. There is no way to reason with them.
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At this point I have experienced a soothing sexy female voice, saying surrender to sleep, all I need is sleep, just relax and take a "short" nap, it is very seductive, very sultry).
The woman of the woods as the the old woodsmen of now only memory and story would say, she comes in the wind, singing a beautifully disturbing song. The trees swaying disturbing the air only creates the acoustic accompaniment for her song. She sings of life and death, the joy and horror experienced beneath a canopy so thick not even god could get through. For most I think it would be ideal, a very peaceful departure from life, definitely beats a hungry bear. To be disconnected from the fact helps most, although the hour of our doom is set and none may escape it, understanding it and accepting it would be better than cowering at the unavoidable.
To answer your original question you already know the answer, if you're not prepared in that situation you entered you'll be off the census. If you're 5+ miles away from a sort of camp or homestead if you don't bunker down and fix things you might as well make your peace.
The woman of the woods as the the old woodsmen of now only memory and story would say, she comes in the wind, singing a beautifully disturbing song. The trees swaying disturbing the air only creates the acoustic accompaniment for her song. She sings of life and death, the joy and horror experienced beneath a canopy so thick not even god could get through. For most I think it would be ideal, a very peaceful departure from life, definitely beats a hungry bear. To be disconnected from the fact helps most, although the hour of our doom is set and none may escape it, understanding it and accepting it would be better than cowering at the unavoidable.
To answer your original question you already know the answer, if you're not prepared in that situation you entered you'll be off the census. If you're 5+ miles away from a sort of camp or homestead if you don't bunker down and fix things you might as well make your peace.
DUH......
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The Putz gave you a definitive answer as well, you've allegedly dealt with cases of hypothermia 14 times, yourself included. You keep pushing the idea of no extraction in your situation, whether in the field or medical facility it's quite simple as thePutz put it. I'm just wondering if you're such an expert in dealing with it why you would ask if you're going to be argumentative about it?
Very simple. I have 53 years of living it. 99+% on this forum have zero, other than reading about it. My goal was to help people understand something for a person who has decades of firsthand personal experience.
This forum is largely comprised of snarky want-to-be, book learned pretenders. And most or many will learn to late the flaws of their prepping.
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OK so, how about telling us what YOU did in some of those situations. Now that I can recognize the symptoms. GO.....
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My guess is he's been in that situation about 20 times, and actually died 3 or 4 times.
You're gonna have to beg harder than that...
He's not just gonna give away such precious knowledge.
Silly.
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Think he will come back and plug his book of secrets on how to survive hypothermia? Only $29.99?
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Sourdough, the information you are looking for is indeed out there, just possibly, not in the format that you were looking for. Most "Training" out there from SERE, to Wilderness Survival Training mainly focuses on stabilizing and getting the patient to a hospital. As you mentioned, this can't always be accomplished.
I am going to copy and paste the rest from a portion of an article I wrote for treating hypothermia in the field..
When a person is suffering from hypothermia what to do:
If the person for example fell into a crack in the ice in a lake, hypothermia can occur 25 times faster, and can set within minutes if not less.
In this situation, once the person is out of the water, remove all articles of clothing, and quickly dry the person as moisture pulls heat away from the body 25 times faster than when the patient is dry.
[Now a person's instinct is to undress and lie down next to the hypothermic individual to warm them up. This would be a mistake. For starters, especially if it is just the two of you, lying next to your friend/patient, you would lose a lot of your own warmth, risking hypothermia for yourself as well.]
Next immediately put on the patien,t dry cloths, and socks and then place the person in a solar blanket or sleeping bag.
The best thing to do to manage the person's body temperature is to raise their core body temperature and blood. For the core temperature, this can be done by placing 2 hand warmers (hot rocks) on their chest area (place hand warmers in socks to prevent burning the patient) one on each pectoral and 2 hand warmers on their back over the kidneys.
To raise their blood temperature, place a hand warmer on the inside of each wrist with the length of the hand warmer going down the arm from the wrist and secure them so they do not fall off with tape or cloth. Now that you have done that place a hand or foot warmer under each feet and secure those in place as well. If you have any hand warmers left place one slightly under the groin area (femoral artery) going down the leg. Last put a wool hat over the patient to prevent heat loss from his or her head and enclose them in the sleeping bag or solar blanket (best if you use both). Make sure they cross the inside of their arms against their body so the hand warmers on wrists also heat part of their core.
Now that you have done all that your next steps is to create a fire near the hypothermic individual. This is not only to warm the patient up but to heat up water, & rocks.
The purpose of heating up the water is to not only hydrate the patient but to warm the patient up from the inside.
Once you have a roaring fire and heated the water up (the intent is not to have the liquid at the temperature of a hot cup of coffee of 160 degrees F, but rather 100°-120° F max) try to get the person to drink the water (sip slowly). It is at this point that you can wrap yourself in the bag with them holding them against yourself.
Explanation of the above.
The hand warmers are being used to heat up the persons core (chest area & all the major organs) and are being used to heat up their blood. Placing the hand warmers over the wrists, under the feet, and groin area is to raise the temperature of their blood. The radial artery runs down from the wrist and the femoral artery runs down the leg from the groin, and the plantar arteries are located under the feet.
This technique is proven to be much more reliable than simply lying down in your skivvies next to a person suffering from hypothermia and can be the difference between life and death. It is a technique that I have not only taught but practiced in real life including with my Ex who was suffering from hypothermia during a kayaking adventure in winter in Port Washington Harbor, NY which occurred from her refusal to wear my waterproof clothing.
Realize that using your body heat to heat up the patient Will Not successfully heat up their blood for severe hypothermia, and the average person body temperature is 98.6 degrees F. while the average hand warmer gives off about 135 degrees F. of heat.
It is also kind of like being on an airplane and the Oxygen masks fall down. You are supposed to put the mask on yourself first and then on your child or a passed-out passenger.
When a person is suffering from hypothermia, once they are dried up and have the handwarmers doing their thing, your best use is to make a fire and heat up liquid vs lying down. In severe cold conditions, chances are by not having a fire and lying down next to them that your core body temperature will fall too low too and, in the end, someone is digging 2 graves vs. 1
editor's note: As mentioned above, drinking warm/hot liquids can warm up the body from within. A military medical tactic that has also been used is having a very warm enema to warm the patent rectally on top of drinking hot beverages..
I would also like to point out, that hypothermia is very painful. The body can convulse so vigorously that you can even break bones.
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Thank you, that was worth reading
So now everyone is knowledgably.
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My mom passed away recently from a combo of CHF & dementia.
She slept a lot in her final weeks of life.
She also experienced sundowning.
She kept thinking there were people lingering around her home.
This made her very worried and scared.
She was prescribed Ativan for agitation, and it eliminated her "visions".
Please enjoy your mom for as long as you can.
I miss mine dearly ...
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My deepest sympathies to you Root for the loss of your beloved mother. Hold on to the memories of her and your time together, as they will bring you comfort in the years to come.
Mine had passed away during the beginning of Covid, prior to lockdown. We tend to think there will always be a tomorrow; spend as much time as you can with your loved ones, take photos, videos, voice recordings, anything that will keep the memories of them alive with you.
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