Because it’s happened to us on a trek, if you see abandoned clothes, stop and search for anyone nearby. Late-stage hypotherima causes a thing called paradoxical undressing where the person feels too hot and starts taking their clothes off.
for a little bit of an order for this if it isn’t obvious: Take any wet clothes off (including sweaty clothes!! underlayers can become soaked with sweat while working in the cold and lead to hypothermia later) BEFORE you wrap the person in warm dry blankets/clothing.
Also I cannot stress the ‘do not rub’ thing enough. If you have a frozen steak, let it thaw a little bit and then give it a good rub. Take a peek at it via a hand lens. You’ll see tons of little cuts/gashes. That’s from the ice crystals cutting into the flesh. NEVER rub the skin of a hypothermia/extreme cold exposed person to warm them up unless you want the same damn thing happening to their flesh.
Don’t warm the extremities (hands/feet) too quickly. Not only would it be extremely painful, but the vessels in said extremities opening too quickly can lead to shock (part of the direct heat issue).
This deserves another reblog
For writers, AND real life, as places get VERY cold with limited heating being allowed to the people…
Stay DRY, stay warm.
Also, if you find a hypothermia victim who appears to be dead, IMMEDIATELY CALL AN AMBULANCE ANYWAYS. Yeah, they might have gone into cardiac arrest, but the wonder of severe hypothermia is that it also slows the rate of brain death, on account of being fucking frozen. There’s been cases of hypothermia victims having their hearts stop, only for them to be revived HOURS later in a hospital and (eventually) make a full recovery.
Hypothermia victims aren’t pronounced dead until they’re warmed up again; you’d be amazed what people can come back from.