Cold Water Survival Tips

[Navy OnStar]

Well since it is the time of year the temps drop and the water turns frigid it is important to review some cold water survival tips. These are useful for you divers who may find yourself in a bad situation in cold water. Or you may go diving and find yourself coming upon someone who has fallen out of a boat etc.

Cold Water

What is it? It is difficult even for an expert to define. It is estimated to be around and under the temperature of 70 degrees. However, this will vary in each case due to the specific circumstances and physical condition of the person involved.

What Happens In Cold Water?

Immersion in cold water can quickly numb the extremities to the point of uselessness. Cold hands cannot fasten the straps of a lifejacket, grasp a thrown rescue line, or hold onto an over-turned boat. Within minutes, severe pain clouds rational thought. And, finally, hypothermia (exposure) sets in, and without rescue and proper first aid treatment, unconsciousness and death. Normal body temperature of course, is 98.6. Shivering and the sensation of cold can begin when the body temperature lowers to approximately 96.5. Amnesia can begin to set in at approximately 94, unconsciousness at 86 and death at approximately 79 degrees.

What To Do In The Water

Cold water robs the body's heat 32 times faster than cold air.
Physical exercise such as swimming causes the body to lose heat at a much faster rate than remaining still in the water. Blood is pumped to the extremities and quickly cooled. Few people can swim a mile in fifty degree water. Should you find yourself in cold water and are not able to get out, you will be faced with a critical choice - to adopt a defensive posture in the water to conserve heat and wait for rescue, or attempt to swim to safety.
Should you find yourself in the water, avoid panic. Swimming or treading water will greatly increase heat loss and can shorten survival time by more than 50%.
The major body heat loss areas are the head, neck, armpits, chest and groin. If you are not alone, huddle together or in a group facing each other to maintain body heat.

First Aid Considerations For Cold Water Victims

Treatment for hypothermia depends on the condition of the person. Mild hypothermia victims who show only symptoms of shivering and are capable of rational conversation may only require removal of wet clothes and replacement with dry clothes or blankets.
In more severe cases where the victim is semi-conscious, immediate steps must be taken to begin the rewarming process.
Get the person out of the water and into a warm environment. Remove the clothing only if it can be done with a minimum of movement of the victim's body. Do not massage the extremities.
Lay the semi-conscious person face up, with the head slightly lowered, unless vomiting occurs. The head down position allows more blood to flow to the brain.
If advanced rescue equipment is available it can be administered by those trained in its use. Warm humidified oxygen should be administered by face mask.
Immediately attempt to rewarm the victims body core. If available, place the person in a bath of hot water at a temperature of 105 to 110 degrees. It is important that the victim's arms and legs be kept out of the water to prevent "after-drop". After-drop occurs when the cold blood from the limbs is forced back into the body resulting in further lowering of the core temperature. After-drop can be fatal.
If a tub is not available, apply hot, wet towels or blankets to the victim's head, neck, chest, groin, and abdomen. Do not warm the arms or legs.
If nothing else is available, a rescuer may use their own body heat to warm a hypothermia victim.
Never give alcohol to a hypothermia victim.

Some Important Facts To Remember

Most persons recovered in cold water "near" drowning cases show the typical symptoms of death:
·Cyanotic (blue) skin coloration
·No detectable breathing
·No apparent pulse or heartbeat
·Pupils fully dilated (opened)
These symptoms, it was discovered, did not always mean the victim was dead. They were, on the other hand, the body's way of increasing its chances of survival through what scientists call the mammalian diving reflex. This reflex is most evident in marine mammals such as whales, seals or porpoises. In the diving reflex, blood is diverted away from the arms and legs to circulate (at the rate of only 6-8 beats per minute, in some cases) between the heart, brain and lungs.
Humans experience the diving reflex, but it is not as pronounced as in other mammals. The factors which enhance the diving reflex in humans are:
·Water temperature - less than 70 degrees or colder, the more profound the response and perhaps the more protective to the brain
·Age - the younger the victim, the more active the reflex
·Facial immersion - the pathways necessary for stimulating this series of responses seem to emanate from facial cold water stimulation.
The diving reflex is a protective mechanism for humans in cold water immersions, but it may confuse the rescuer into thinking the victim is dead. Resuscitative efforts for these victims should be started immediately utilizing CPR in accordance with your training.
Remember, numerous children have been brought up from freezing water after 30 minutes and been successfully resuscitated.

I got this from the U.S. Search and Rescue Task Force

U.S. SAR Task Force Main Page

[adv_diver1]

Don't be chicken to pee in your wetsuit. Could be a life saver.

[GDiver]

Thank for going over these lifesaving tips. It always helps to review important information making it easier for us to use it when rational thought has become more difficult.

[cummings66]

I read somewhere that peeing in your wetsuit actually will increase your heat loss and not help. I think it had something to do with the blood vessels dilating more because it was warmer, but in reality it was so short lived as to cause the blood to cool off more.

I know this much, I've had more than one dive professional tell me that peeing in your wetsuit in the Winter will not make your warmer long term and in fact makes you colder.

[MSilvia]

Originally Posted by cummings66

I know this much, I've had more than one dive professional tell me that peeing in your wetsuit in the Winter will not make your warmer long term and in fact makes you colder.

If it's all you're relying on to keep you warm for the dive, they're right. If you combine it with other heat-retention strategies, it can help tremendously. At least, that's been my experience.

[PsychDiver]

I could be toss up. In cold weather survival training provided by the marine corps we were taught that at night pee in a empty coke bottle and cap it. Keep it in your sleeping bag until it cooled off and then take it out. The theory was that when it is in your body, your body has to use energy to keep it warm. When it is outside it is warmer than the surrounding air until it cooled off. However, the properties of water may change this.

[Navy OnStar]

I think the fact that a wet suit has water moving through it might make it the pee warmth very ineffective. It does make you feel slightly warmer for a few minutes but I think it ultimately adds to heat loss.

[GDiver]

i think peeing in the suit in really cold water is about the same as going from outside on a cold winter day to inside for about a minute to warm up and then going back outside. i always seem to feel colder if i do that.

[MSilvia]

Originally Posted by GDiver

i think peeing in the suit in really cold water is about the same as going from outside on a cold winter day to inside for about a minute to warm up and then going back outside. i always seem to feel colder if i do that.

Only if you wait until it's already too late. It should be more like going out in the cold when you're all warm and bundled up, and coming back in briefly to take the chill off before you ever really get cold.

If you start a cold water dive by pouring warm water into your suit, that water should help you to retain the heat you already have, as you won't be expending energy to heat that insulated layer of water up. It will cool off over the course of the dive though, and as it cools you'll cool with it. If you "re-warm" that water by peeing in your suit, you can effectively defer the onset of rapid body heat loss until later in the dive, which can be a real boon if, for example, you do it right before turning the dive, as it'll let you get back to the boat or shore before you begin to suffer any of the seriously detrimental effects of cold.

On the other hand, trying to warm up an already cold suit with urine is of questionable value, although it'll probably feel good for a few minutes. The idea is to avoid getting cold in the first place, not to warm up when you're cold already.

[Iceman]

This link is to a document that summarizes the best science and experience has to offer from the people who deal with it on a daily basis.

http://www.chems.alaska.gov/EMS/docu...oldInj2005.pdf

Reaction to cold is very individualized so gentle care and judgement are keys in caring for anyone who is cold.


I should add that anyone who has become hypothermic to the point of near drowning or physical incapacitation requires hospital evaluation and care.