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WMN Editors

New Cold Injury Assessment Card

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ISSN:1059-6518

Volume 28 Number 6

Our friend and advisor, Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht, a.k.a Professor Popsicle, sent us a sample of a project he has been working on: a useful card on assessing a cold patient. The card is being distributed by an organization called BICOrescue.com (BICO stands for Baby It’s Cold Outside) a group dedicated to better educating rescuers about the identification and treatment of cold injuries.

The site hosts a series of video presentations, interactive videos, and resource materials that can be accessed by anyone who registers. The material on the site is presented as an online course that supported by the government of Canada through their Search and Rescue New Initiative Fund (SAR NIF).

It looks like an excellent resource for anyone involved with Search and Rescue or the practice of Wilderness Medicine.

If you want to see the card that Gordon sent us, check out the Images below.

If you would like to print the card, You can click on either image and then print.

Hypo_Card_5x7_Feb29

Hypo_Card_5x7_Feb29

Disclaimer: The content of the Wilderness Medicine Newsletter is not a substitute for formal training or the recommendation of an expert. The authors, editors, and artists are not responsible for inaccuracies.

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WMN Editors

A Winter Primer: Cold Injuries Overview

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In North America we are in the depths of winter, and, here in the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, the days are short, the snow is deep, and you dress in layers to stay warm. The winter extremes also tend to make our mountain rescues longer and harder due to the very real impact that the cold has on our patients as well as on the rescuer teams.

 

This edition of the WMNL is a Winter Primer dedicated to the cold-related injuries brought on by the winter world that some of us have chosen to live in. We will discuss who we are as an animal and our limitations in the cold along with the specific cold-related injuries and their recognition, management, and prevention.

 

 

ISSN-1059-6518

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WMN Editors

Frozen Mythbusters

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Recently, I (Frank) had the delightful opportunity to spend several days with Gordon and Murray as we taught together at the Northern NH EMS Conference and the Harry McDade Hypothermia Conference. As usual we took great joy in the opportunity to discuss current research, current classroom information, and a variety of rescues involving hypothermia and other cold-related injuries. We recognize that even though there is abundant scientific information, there are still many old wives’ tales and misinformation that are being taught, passed on, and utilized in patient care. There appears to be some bad data in education which is causing rescuers to provide inappropriate patient care that can be deleterious to their patients. So, we decided to take a look at the many myths and misinformation that seem to surround cold physiology and cold-related injuries.

November/December 2004  ISSN-1059-6518  Volume 17 Number 6

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