The cold hard facts of freezing to death

Squeaky the Squirrel

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/As-Freezing-Persons-Recollect-the-Snow--First-Chill--Then-Stupor--Then-the-Letting-Go.html?page=all

Good read, little tidbits scattered throughout the story really make it worth the full read.

There is no precise core temperature at which the human body perishes from cold. At Dachau's cold-water immersion baths, Nazi doctors calculated death to arrive at around 77 degrees Fahrenheit. The lowest recorded core temperature in a surviving adult is 60.8 degrees. For a child it's lower: In 1994, a two-year-old girl in Saskatchewan wandered out of her house into a minus-40 night. She was found near her doorstep the next morning, limbs frozen solid, her core temperature 57 degrees. She lived.

In fact, many hypothermia victims die each year in the process of being rescued. In "rewarming shock," the constricted capillaries reopen almost all at once, causing a sudden drop in blood pressure. The slightest movement can send a victim's heart muscle into wild spasms of ventricular fibrillation. In 1980, 16 shipwrecked Danish fishermen were hauled to safety after an hour and a half in the frigid North Sea. They then walked across the deck of the rescue ship, stepped below for a hot drink, and dropped dead, all 16 of them.

:eek:

Were you a Norwegian fisherman or Inuit hunter, both of whom frequently work gloveless in the cold, your chilled hands would open their surface capillaries periodically to allow surges of warm blood to pass into them and maintain their flexibility. This phenomenon, known as the hunter's response, can elevate a 35-degree skin temperature to 50 degrees within seven or eight minutes.


Other human adaptations to the cold are more mysterious. Tibetan Buddhist monks can raise the skin temperature of their hands and feet by 15 degrees through meditation. Australian aborigines, who once slept on the ground, unclothed, on near-freezing nights, would slip into a light hypothermic state, suppressing shivering until the rising sun rewarmed them.

I have all these ^^^ abilities. And am Lactose Tolerant aswell.:pac:

Doc Ruby

Squeaky the Squirrel wrote: »

Other human adaptations to the cold are more mysterious. Tibetan Buddhist monks can raise the skin temperature of their hands and feet by 15 degrees through meditation.

Yeah I've been battering at this myself, its tough going. You still feel the cold in all its horrible glory, it just doesn't affect your ability to do things as much.

St. Leibowitz

Squeaky the Squirrel wrote: »

In 1980, 16 shipwrecked Danish fishermen were hauled to safety after an hour and a half in the frigid North Sea. They then walked across the deck of the rescue ship, stepped below for a hot drink, and dropped dead, all 16 of them.

That 16 danish fishermen story ?? Looks like it's an urban myth. A few references to it across the Internet, but almost all have exactly the same wording. Some research into Danish shipwrecks show nothing anywhere around 1980, either in the North Sea or anywhere else worldwide. Can't find a reference on any news sites etc.

Badly researched crap like this is the reason that you can't trust anything on the Internet. I immediately doubt everything else in it, even though it's probably correct. Sloppy journalism. Surprised it's not a link to the Mail Online to be honest.

Squeaky the Squirrel

St. Leibowitz wrote: »

That 16 danish fishermen story ?? Looks like it's an urban myth. A few references to it across the Internet, but almost all have exactly the same wording. Some research into Danish shipwrecks show nothing anywhere around 1980, either in the North Sea or anywhere else worldwide. Can't find a reference on any news sites etc.

You may be right.

Offshore Technology Report 519 - Review of Rescue and Immediate Post-Immersion Problems http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/othpdf/500-599/oth519.pdf This report is from 1997 and lists both historical (documented) and anecdotal evidence of hypothermia at sea. The story about 16 Danish fisherman is not included.
However, there is a story that sounds remarkably similar.
"Other classic examples of post-immersion collapse include the survivors of the SS Empire Howard (Lee, 1971). The Captain of the ship, Capt Downey, reported: "everyone was conscious when taken out of the water but many lost consciousness when taken into the warmth of the trawler. Nine (out of 12) died shortly after being rescued".
The SS Empire Howard was sunk by a U-boat on 16, April, 1942.
The earliest mention I can find related to the 16 Danish Fisherman is from Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods". I suspect that he altered a real story for the purpose of comedy, and unfortunately people keep retelling the made up story.

pg 11

St. Leibowitz wrote: »

Badly researched crap like this is the reason that you can't trust anything on the Internet. I immediately doubt everything else in it, even though it's probably correct. Sloppy journalism.

Ah, It's a good story. I read it as such.

St. Leibowitz wrote: »

Surprised it's not a link to the Mail Online to be honest.

Can't understand this, theirs some gems on there. So what about the bull**** stories. I count myself lucky if I'm looking up something and find it on there cuz of all the extra detail in some of the stories. You could read 5 other sites and not get as much info.

I :mad: when I see this Daily Mail line posted and it's all over the fupping site.

Theirs one clown in one of the Forums who always comes out with it when he/she is proven wrong, even when the link isin't from the MO, god it's a disgust. And "from the back arse of the internet" is what I could only describe where some of the **** the clown links to to back up his/her spiel.

God it's a disgust.