Hypothermia is the process where a person loses heat faster than they can produce body heat, and at a certain point, important organs shut down, and blood doesn’t carry oxygen to the cells, heart or the brain anymore and the person dies.

As we enter the cold and rainy season, we are more at risk of experiencing hypothermia while we are paddling. This isn’t the only time to worry, but the risk is greater in colder weather. I’ve experienced hypothermia on a sunny day in July, but it usually happens in colder and rainy weather.

As a person gets colder, they start shivering, as a method of the body trying to increase muscle use, and produce more heat. Thinking becomes erratic and difficult, but if you can get someplace warm, and change into dry clothes, it should be easily remedied.

OH, and this is a reminder that you should take a DRY BAG, with SPARE DRY CLOTHES, AND A TOWEL, just for such occasions.

On the other hand, if you should get severely hypothermic, DO NOT DRINK WARM DRINKS TO WARM UP. Several cases are on record showing that drinking hot chocolate, or hot tea in order to warm up produces a shock to cold internal organs which CAUSES death. Use tepid, or almost cool drinks, if they are thirsty. Do not drink or give a person with hypothermia anything with alcohol.

Also, do not try to warm up the arms and legs first, as warm blood returning to cold internal organs has also caused death. Do not rub arms and legs. Warm up the affected person SLOWLY. Get out of wet clothes, and into a dry protected area, or into dry clothes. Get moving about and exercising (SLOWLY) to encourage warming up slowly.

Once, after I began shivering uncontrollably, when we stopped for lunch, I went running through the woods, and ran a mile or two before I began warming up.

As mentioned, hypothermia causes confusion and affects thinking, so a person suffering hypothermia may be confused, lost, or belligerent. You may need to be decisive and forceful to take corrective action.

If you are suffering from this, get dry and warm first, before you make the situation worse. If you are paddling, this may require that you get off the water and build a fire.

As in many safety situations, arriving LATE, but SAFE, is way better than not arriving at all.

Stay safe out there!

References:
"Why I gave myself hypothermia"
"Extreme Cold (Hypothermia)"

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The author, Harmon Everett