Quote:
Originally Posted by Tishabet
I have encountered hypothermic people twice during my exploits, and I can absolutely believe that a rational, intelligent person might do something totally irrational like take off their life vest and "swim for it" if they are hypothermic.
The first hypothermic guy I ever encountered was wearing a down coat, completely unzipped, and was holding his wool hat in his hand. He tried to say something to me, but was slurring his words badly... he then yelled out that his name was Blake, stumbled and fell in the snow, barfed, and collapsed. He ended up pulling through just fine, but I don't think there's any good explanation for why someone who was obviously cold would unzip their jacket and take off their hat.
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Yup. We pulled a guy out of an avalanche some years ago. He'd been under the snow for 18 hours and had dug himself a large breathing chamber. But his legs were broken and he couldn't move. When we found him he was singing "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the bible tells me so." And he wouldn't stop singing this all the way to the hospital. We found out later he was Jewish. The doctors thought the singing might just have kept him alive.