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20,000 hypothermia--related deaths a year in Britain, about 25,000--in the USA, 8,000 deaths a year in Canada
Hypothermia is defined as a core body temperature less than 35 degrees C (95 degrees F) and results from prolonged exposure to cold environment, drugs, and underlying pathologic conditions. Hypothermia is associated with marked depression of cerebral blood flow and oxygen requirement, reduced cardiac output, and decreased arterial pressure. Victims can appear to be clinically dead because of marked depression of brain and cardiovascular function, bet full resuscitation with intact neurological recovery is possible. Alcohol or drug intoxication are the dominant precipitating factors. There are about 20,000 hypothermia--related deaths a year in Britain, about 25,000--in the USA, 8,000 deaths a year in Canada. There are suggestions that the unofficial number of hypothermia--related deaths is substantially higher, particularity in the elderly. This article reviews the cause, pathogenesis, pathophysiology, clinical features, electrocardiographic manifestations of hypothermia, diagnosis, pre-hospital stabilization, hospital passive, active external, active core rewarming methods, other questions of treatment, and mortality of hypothermia. It is very important to remember, thar if a hypothermic victim is alive when rescued but dies during recovery treatment, and there is no other significant trauma or disease, this suggests that death may have resulted from either inappropriate or ineffective treatment, or no treatment at all.
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Hypothermia made up 27.0% of all temperature injuries, but 94.0% of all deaths.
Highlights:
Temperature related injuries were analyzed using hospital data, 2011–2018.
Injury incidence rates were highest among African-Americans and the elderly.
Hypothermia made up 27.0% of all temperature injuries, but 94.0% of all deaths.
Cumulative hospital charges for 2011–2018 was almost one billion dollars.
Coagulopathy and liver disease were associated with increased mortality for heat injuries.
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Extreme weather dangers often overlooked as Cook County reports 26 cold-related deaths in 2017
The day after Christmas, with an arctic chill gripping Chicago, police and paramedics were called to the city’s West Side, where a man was found unresponsive inside a car parked on the street. The early morning temperature was minus 3 degrees.
The driver’s-side door of the car was ajar. Levon L. Wilson was inside, lying in the driver’s seat, his feet resting on the ground.
The vehicle’s hood was propped up with an expandable rod and the keys were in the ignition. A collection of tools lay scattered on the seats and floor.
Wilson was “frozen solid,” according to the medical examiner investigator’s report. There were no signs of foul play.
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Cold-weather accounts for almost all temperature-related deaths
With the number of extreme weather days rising around the globe in recent years due to global warming, it is no surprise that there has been an upward trend in hospital visits and admissions for injuries caused by high heat over the last several years. But cold temperatures are responsible for almost all temperature-related deaths, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Research.
According to the new study by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago, patients who died because of cold temperatures were responsible for 94% of temperature-related deaths, even though hypothermia was responsible for only 27% of temperature-related hospital visits.
“With the decrease in the number of cold weather days over the last several decades, we still see more deaths due to cold weather as opposed to hot weather,” said Lee Friedman, associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the UIC School of Public Health and corresponding author on the paper. “This is in part due to the body’s poorer ability to thermoregulate once hypothermia sets in, as well as since there are fewer cold weather days overall, people don’t have time to acclimate to cold when those rarer cold days do occur.”
Hypothermia, or a drop in the body’s core temperature, doesn’t require sub-arctic temps. Even mildly cool temperatures can initiate hypothermia, defined as a drop in body temperature from the normal 98.7 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. When this occurs, organs and systems begin to shut down in an effort to preserve the brain. The process, once started, can be very difficult to get under control; however, people who are more regularly exposed to lower temperatures are better able to resist hypothermia.
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Excess winter deaths in England and Wales highest since 1976
Denis Campbell Health policy editor
Fri 30 Nov 2018 12.39 GMT
Call for more NHS resources as elderly people and women among most vulnerable
There were 50,100 excess deaths in England and Wales last winter, when there was a prolonged spell of extreme cold, making it the highest number since 1976, figures have shown.
The Office for National Statistics said flu and the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine were key reasons for the rise of excess winter deaths in 2017-18.
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Moderately cold weather 'more deadly than heatwaves or extreme cold'
Study finds cold weather kills 20 times as many people as hot weather, and that premature deaths are most often caused by prolonged spells of moderate cold
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Complexity in crisis: The volcanic cold pulse of the 1690s and the consequences of Scotland's failure to cope
Highlights
- 1690s coldest decade in a 750-year tree-ring temperature record from Scotland
- Linked to volcanic cooling pulse
- Known as the “Ills”, historical linkages to socioeconomic crises including famine
- Spurred ill-fated expedition of Scots to Panama
Abstract
Recent work has linked historical crises, both regional and local, with palaeoclimatic estimates of global and hemispheric climate change. Such studies tend to underemphasize the spatiotemporal and socioeconomical disparity of human suffering and adaptive capacity as well as the complexities of past climate change. We focus herein on the effects in Scotland of a severely cold climate episode in the 1690s, associated with major tropical volcanic events including a large unidentified tropical eruption in 1695. A tree-ring based summer temperature reconstruction from the northern Cairngorms region identifies the 1690s as the coldest decade in Scotland for the last 750 years. Archival sources meanwhile reveal the 1690s as likely the worst era of crop failure, food shortage, and mortality ever documented in Scottish history. The connection appears simple - volcanic cooling triggered famine - but the drivers towards famine are far more complex. Although the unusual coldness of the 1690s was near-hemispheric in scale, it had a differential impact across north-western Europe. Within Scotland, both lowlands and highlands experienced dire conditions, but distinct factors exacerbated the suffering in each region. We integrate historical and palaeoclimatic records to explore the influence of the volcanic cold pulse of the 1690s and its consequences in Scotland. We find that while cooling temperatures characterized the regional to larger-scale climate, vulnerability and response potential were diverse and shaped by local circumstances. The Scottish crisis of the 1690s, in the context of the kingdom's failing economy, influenced investors from all parts of society, including the nobility and entire communities, to fund the ill-fated expedition to colonize Darien in modern-day Panama. The climate crisis and the colony's collapse hindered Scotland's already sluggish economy, motivating unification with England soon after.
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