On May 22nd, on the way to the Baiyin Mountain Marathon in Gansu Province, extreme weather suddenly occurred, with local hail, freezing rain and strong wind, and the temperature plummeted, and the participants felt unwell and lost temperature.
Up to the 23rd, * * * has retrieved the contestants 15 1 person, 8 of whom were slightly injured and were treated in the hospital. 2 1 contestant lost vital signs when found.
What killed 2 1 person was "temperature loss", which is known as one of the two outdoor killers.
Source: cover news
How terrible is "temperature loss"?
"Loss of temperature is also called' accidental hypothermia', which is a kind of hypothermia syndrome in clinic. It is the spontaneous drop of body temperature below 35 C caused by cold environment." Wang Yizhen, chief physician of the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Tianjin TEDA Hospital, said that the thermoregulatory center was normal at this time, only because the heat generated was not enough to meet the needs of the body, which led to a significant drop in the deep body temperature, that is, the core body temperature (referring to the body temperature of the main organs that maintain life such as the brain, heart and lungs), which caused all organs to function abnormally and eventually led to death.
In daily life, cold can stimulate the thermoregulatory center, make the blood vessels on the body surface contract through adrenergic sympathetic nerve to keep body temperature, and increase muscle tension and jitter through motor nerve to generate heat. "The human body maintains normal body temperature by balancing heat production and heat loss." Wang Yizhen said.
"Although the runners are running a marathon cross-country race, in the case of insufficient warmth and extreme weather, strenuous exercise may not necessarily offset the loss of body temperature of the runners." Wang Yimin analyzed that when the heat production rate is lower than the heat loss rate, the body temperature will gradually decrease, and when the core body temperature is lower than 35℃, the organ function will be reduced and abnormal. If the body temperature continues to drop, it will cause death.
The reason why hypothermia has such a serious impact on human body is that low temperature reduces the whole enzyme activity, dilates peripheral blood vessels and affects aerobic metabolism, so low temperature actually affects every system of the body.
Therefore, people with hypothermia have symptoms such as headache, anxiety, stiff muscles and joints of limbs, pale and cold skin, rapid heartbeat and breathing, and elevated blood pressure in the early stage of cold.
When the body temperature continues to drop, the patient falls into a state of insanity from lethargy.
When the body temperature is lower than 32.2℃, the patient's heartbeat and breathing are slowed down, his pulse is weak, and he has arrhythmia. The patient has hallucinations, belligerence, refusal to help, and further progress to stupor and coma.
At this time, the cold heart can't withstand stimulation, and any stimulation can cause ventricular fibrillation. If the body temperature continues to drop to 29 ~ 24℃ C, it will die of cardiac arrest or ventricular fibrillation.
What should I do if I encounter temperature loss in outdoor sports?
"Although temperature loss is one of the common dangers of outdoor sports, this risk can be prevented before the outdoor sports are carried out, and the corresponding equipment is prepared." Li Chong, instructor of chinese mountaineering association camp, national senior development trainer and adventure leader of China Adventure Association, said.
The players are in the competition. Source: Baiyin Daily
"However, this mountain marathon 100-kilometer cross-country race is held in early summer, and the warm and hot weather makes it easy to ignore the temperature difference and thus take it lightly." Li Chong analyzed, and generally speaking, participating in cross-country marathon is different from simple outdoor hiking and survival in the wild, and the pursuit is speed. Therefore, the contestants are all lightly packed, and the equipment generally only brings water, vitamins and functional drinks. Therefore, when encountering extreme weather, there may be insufficient response.
Everyone who is engaged in outdoor knows that temperature loss is mainly caused by the interaction of several main factors such as temperature, humidity and wind, so when preparing outdoor equipment, these three aspects should be carefully prepared.
"For outdoor sports, a warm three-piece suit is essential." Li Chong introduced that the outer jacket, down jacket, etc. should be made of rain-proof and windproof materials, the middle soft shell and fleece should be kept warm, and it is essential to wear quick-drying underwear on the inner layer. Once the clothes on your body are wet by sweat, rain and river water, you can have a spare, instead of wearing wet underwear to cause temperature loss.
"The warm protection of the head is very important, because it is easy to cause rapid temperature loss when exposed to the outside." Li Chong stressed that you must prepare warm hats, gloves, scarves, windbreakers, thick socks, wind masks and even goggles, which are all necessary items for traveling in windy and cold weather. There are too many exposed body organs, and the greater the wind speed, the faster the body heat will be lost.
The temperature in mountainous areas is lower than that in urban areas, especially in high altitude areas, and the weather is even more unpredictable. Therefore, in the process of outdoor activities, it is very important to master some scientific knowledge and self-protection measures in addition to choosing appropriate warm clothes to prevent hypothermia.
"Under the influence of the environment, human body temperature decreases through evaporation, radiation, convection and conduction." Li Chong reminded that the temperature loss was caused by long-term exposure to a cold environment, not extreme cold. Because the flowing air constantly removes heat from the body surface, this "air cooling effect" makes the somatosensory temperature lower than the actual temperature when there is wind, so exposure to cold wind should be avoided. Outdoor sports enthusiasts should learn to use local materials if they encounter temperature loss outdoors. For example, large plastic bags can also temporarily prevent wind and rain.
Many runners in the cross-country race of the Silver Mountain Marathon just found a corner with a little shelter from the wind to hold a group for warmth and other rescues, and were finally rescued safely.
Do not raise the temperature suddenly to rescue those who have lost temperature.
If the temperature loss has occurred outdoors, it is necessary to take the time to give first aid to the patient.
"For the rescue of those who have lost temperature, we must not carry out sudden warming such as baking fire, and we need to slowly warm up." Wang Yimin said that because patients with severe hypothermia are seriously dehydrated and the concentrations of body fluids and cell fluids are increased, the biochemical environment in the body has undergone tremendous changes to adapt to the low temperature environment. If rewarming is too violent, blood vessels may be violently dilated, leading to hypotension, further lowering the core body temperature and causing rewarming shock.
Therefore, the best way to help those who have lost temperature is to get rid of the low temperature environment and strengthen heat preservation.
Rescue site. Photo courtesy of Gansu Fire Protection
The first thing that needs to be done is to prevent people who have lost their temperature from being exposed to the cold. If they are wet clothes, they must be changed in time to avoid emitting more heat.
"In the hospital, we will use a 37 C rewarming blanket for patients with hypothermia. If the site conditions do not allow, we can wrap the hypothermia with clothes or sleeping bags." Wang Yimin introduced that in vitro rewarming of patients with hypothermia should focus on the core parts, such as neck, armpit and groin. The limbs only need to be passively kept warm to prevent freezing. In addition, when warming up, wrap the thermos bottle with cloth to prevent it from warming up too fast.
It should be noted that for those with severe hypothermia, it is impossible to return to normal state in the field, which can only delay death, so they must be transferred to hospital immediately for treatment.
We must also be careful when handling patients with hypothermia, so as to avoid that during the handling process, a large amount of cold blood will flow back from the epidermis to the heart, causing arrhythmia.