Girl nearly dies in a field??

[arctic hobo]

I've just read in our local rag about a 17 year old girl who while walking home on a route I know well (along a couple lanes, cross a field, follow the stream for a hundred yards and back onto the road again), very nearly froze to death, and has been in a coma for five days. She was discovered by a dog walker, airlifted to hospital and was so near death that the doctors though she was a lost cause. And this was in one field, that did not even have snow in.
I just can't understand it... how do you freeze to death in a Devon field??
Your thoughts please :wave:

 

[bambodoggy]

Short of her being anemic/anorexic/blacked out etc or just no body fat at all I do find that hard to understand....

Contrast it with a story on our local tv news a few weeks ago when we had that cold snap where a 6 year old lad wondered off from a campsite and ended up getting lost in the woods over night when the temp was down to freezing and below with wind chill....they sent out search and rescue and the little lad was found safe and well, if a little deshevelled and scared, the next afternoon....

Funny old world isn't it....? :?:

 

[Wayne]

Hypothermia is associated with the enviroment and energy levels. Young girlie not eating properly possibly having consumed too much booze. dehydrated and wearing the wrong clothing. its possible i guess.

Have yo got any more details like prevailing conditions?

Hope the girl makes a full recovery.

 

[jakunen]

She was probably one of those extrememly fashionied totally anorexic supermodel-skinny girls. And if she was that close to the road...

Mind you, most young girls these days won't wear 'decent' clothign coz its not trendy. Apparently a micro skirt, high heel boots and a bolero/crop top are the only things to be seen dead in darling...Dead presumably being the operative word...

(I know, I'm getting very cynical in my old age...)

 

[Wayne]

hey don't knock it till you have tried it. oops wrong forum

 

[Gary]

All that is by the by guys the point is you can become hypothermic anywhere where if conditions are right.

 

[Andy]

as I proved in october last year.
I've delt with a few people that have got very drunk and been worse for wear with cold. I don't find it hard to believe at all

 

[simonsays]

All that is by the by guys the point is you can become hypothermic anywhere where if conditions are right.

Absolutely right, most hypothermia accidents occur when the temperature is well above freezing. Its usually a combination of rain, wind, cool temperatures and a poor choice of clothing.

Been there, done that

simon

 

[ChrisKavanaugh]

Women have less body mass than men and are more at risk. As posted earlier, the human body begins to suffer from hypothermia at @ 40 degrees F. As she collapsed her entire body was in contact with the cold ground. Remember too that cold air sinks and the ambient temperature at ground level is even colder. Homeless people are often found deceased from simple exposure to the elements and even people stranded somehow die looking at the twinkling lights of los Angeles . Mother Nature doesn't stop at some magic demarcation line of asphalt, concrete and steel.

 

[den]

Absolutely right, most hypothermia accidents occur when the temperature is well above freezing. Its usually a combination of rain, wind, cool temperatures and a poor choice of clothing.

I agree totally. Also not having enough fuel in the tank (food)
The young ones are also more susceptible to dehydration etc.

 

[nomade]

A sad story. Yes it seems we are both strong and fragile. As many accounts of people surviving conditions beyond-extreme, even doctors wonder how, and on the other hand people falling victim to circumstances almost normal, immediately one thinks: "silly to die like this...could easily have been avoided...".

To me these things often appear a mystery. The human body...

Like some of you have said, sometimes a combination of factors create lethal conditions. The SAS say the worst possible scenario weatherwise is for instance, Scotland below snow line in windy/rainy weather: wet-cold-windy, a 3-factor cocktail. This is where they often train.

Above snowline, you have only two factors, cold-windy, down in the plain you also have only 2 factors, wet-cold.

We tend to think you have to be in Antarctica to face dangerous conditions yet the truth is very different. But I obviously share your amazement at how this young girl died.

 

[Abbe Osram]

Hi
one needs more information of the case. But I could believe that she was drunk, had drugs was depressed after a fight with her boyfriend thrown out of a car etc etc and the rest what of my fellow bushcrafters are saying. Skinny, wrong cloth maybe friday night coming from a party or disco. Wind, rain etc is doing the rest.
Its a sad story but I heard someone saying that there are no punishment only consequence and that is right here too. Hope she will make it and learns something for the future. :?:

cheers
Abbe

 

[arctic hobo]

Sorry I should have said, she has made a full recovery, and doctors checked and found no drugs or alcohol in her at all.
It reminds me of a story one of our american members (sorry, don't remember who) posted about hikers who were wandering in tight circles mere yards from a road for days... are we become so alienated from the wilderness that we are that helpless?

 

[george]

slightly off topic - but a large percentage of car accident victims are admitted to hospital with hypothermia (or at least the beginnings of it). You're driving along in your nice warm car, dressed in shirt sleeves, climate control nice and warm when boom - in come the windows and suddenly you're lying there in the cold. half an hour later (or three hours if you live where I do and you're lucky!) you're in an ambulance on your way to hospital - but not before you've lost so much heat you're becoming hypothermic.

We tend to dress for what we expect when we get where we're going, not what we might encounter on the way.

george

 

[Great Pebble]

Totally off topic of course, but that last point has apparently been the undoing of more than one set of potential aircraft hijackers....

 

[TAHAWK]

[A]re we become so alienated from the wilderness that we are that helpless?

In 1964, my SAR team found a man in his late 20's in perfectly good condition but walking steadily north in the Sierra-Nevada Range -- under the imprerssion that he was going east towards a major highway. Mind you, the mountains clearly run north-south, and there is that little matter of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. He didn't seem like a dolt, but "alienated" seems a good description.

 

[Burnt Ash]

Sorry I should have said, she has made a full recovery, and doctors checked and found no drugs or alcohol in her at all.
It reminds me of a story one of our american members (sorry, don't remember who) posted about hikers who were wandering in tight circles mere yards from a road for days... are we become so alienated from the wilderness that we are that helpless?

That sounds fishy to me. A young healthy person, even inadequately clad, should not have succumbed so close to safety in familiar territory. The things that might get a person into trouble so close to 'home' would be:
a) disorienting occurrence, such as a complete white-out blizzard.
b) fall into frigid water.
c) other disabling accident.
d) alcohol/drugs.
e) medical trauma (e.g., heart attack, stroke, epilepsy, diabetes, etc.).

Sometimes, even the 'wrong' clothing can save one's life. There was a case (probably over 20 years ago now) where motorists where stranded by a sudden blizzard (in Scotland, somewhere, as I recall). One was a commercial traveller in ladies' underwear. He kept hypothermia at bay until he was rescued by wrapping himself in scores and scores of tights and various skimpy undergarments.

I trust everyone keeps spare warm and waterproof clothing; gloves; woolly hats; wellies; tow rope; jump leads; torch; etc. in their cars at this time of the year?

Burnt Ash

 

[RovingArcher]

The warning signs of hypothermia go a long way to explain how she could collapse so close to safety. Once hypothermia sets in, action needs to be taken to get warm. If the ability to get warm isn't available, either through circumstance, lack of ability, or both, you can pretty much kiss your behind goodbye unless there are people with you that know what to do.

 

[Wayne]

RA that link didn't work for me.

 

[RovingArcher]

RA that link didn't work for me.

:wave: Thank you Wayne, problem fixed. Figures I don't review and that happens. :?: