Resuscitation in case of hypothermia

What is it about ?

When a person has been unwittingly and too long in a cold environment, they can experience hypothermia. For example: a person who falls into an unheated dwelling or on the street at night, and who remains lying down because he can no longer get up or move. His body temperature will then gradually drop.

How to recognize it?

The drop in temperature slows down the metabolism and functions of the body. The reactions, breathing and heart rate slow down, and the skin becomes cold. The person may appear dead. Paradoxically, this is a means of survival for the body. This is because vital functions are preserved for longer with a low body temperature.

Check immediately if the vital functions are still present: state of consciousness, breathing and heartbeat.

• Check thestate of consciousness of the person by speaking to him or for example by pinching his skin, and see if he reacts.
• Try to feel her breathing at the level of his mouth, or to see if the chest is moving.
• Try to take her pulse at the neck. You should feel their pulse for 60 seconds because their heart rate may be very slow.

What can you do ?

If vital functions are still intact, immediately notify emergency services and, while waiting for them to arrive, try to warm the person with clothing or if possible with blankets or the survival blanket from the kit. emergency car.

If vital functions have stopped, but there are no clear signs that the person is dead, call emergency services and start resuscitating them.

• Follow the resuscitation rhythm: 2 breaths and 30 heart massages. Perform these fairly quickly (100 per minute) and hard enough: press on the chest so as to sink it a good 5 centimeters.
• Try to continue resuscitation until the arrival of emergencies that will take over.
• If there are people around you, ask for help. Someone can take care of the breaths and someone else does the heart massage. If you get tired, you can turn the tables.

When the emergency services arrived, the team took over the resuscitation and plugged in an external defibrillator. The victim will then be taken to hospital as soon as possible to be warmed up and gradually revived.

Want to know more?

Having to save a life, it can happen to anyone – Play and test your knowledge – Belgian Red Cross

Source

Foreign clinical practice guide ‘Resuscitation in case of accidental hypothermia’ (2000), updated on 19.02.2016 and adapted to the Belgian context on 08.10.2019 – ebpracticenet