The dictionary

definition of hypothermia is a condition of abnormally low body temperature.

Most men will say this explains why ladies have such cold feet. Women

will say that hypothermia could be the condition that makes all men's

hearts so cold.

But after last

weekend, I have found another definition for the word. Hypothermia is

going with a fourteen-year-old to the north Georgia mountains, and camping

in a tent during the first week of December.

On the car

trip up, my son and I talked about the normal stuff: hiking, camping,

mountain bears, and fishing. At the base of the mountain road we were

surprised to see one of the people that I work with and his girlfriend.

They were both equipped with over $2,000 worth of mountain bikes, helmets,

special bike shoes and backpacks. He said that he had a 25-mile course

already picked out and they would see us on the other side of the mountain.

We put the

truck in four-wheel drive and started for the camp site. There was still

an hour before sundown when we reached the site at the top of the mountain.

My job at this point was simple: set up the new tent. The boy's job was

to make and start the campfire. He said, "At aviation camp we learned

six ways to make a campfire."

One hour later

I was still trying to set up the tent, but at least we had a nice fire

to keep us warm. It was about this time that my friend came peddling by.

He said he was having a great time and only had ten more miles to go.

His girlfriend did not say anything as she peddled behind him. The look

on her face said she was going to find a new boyfriend that was not so

into mountain bikes.

With an exposure

to cold, the body tries to compensate by shivering, increasing the cardiac

output and increasing breathing. This will produce additional heat tying

to make up for the heat lost from the body surface due to the cold and

wind. Normal core temperature is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit so when

core temperature drops below 95 degrees, you will be in a hypothermic

state. Between 95 and 97 degrees is considered mild hypothermia.

During the

winter many outdoor activities will find us in this mild state. Shivering

is one way your body combats this heat loss and producing heat; vasoconstriction

is another. Vasoconstriction occurs throughout the entire body at the

same time. It's the body's way of shrinking the diameter of the blood

vessels in the fingers, toes, and on the surface of the skin to retain

heat. This keeps more of the blood near the major organs of the body,

which keeps them functioning correctly.

But by doing

so, fingers, toes, and the surface of the skin do not have enough blood

to keep them warm. This is a major drawback that many a snowball fighter

has had to contend with (cold fingers are but a small price to pay for

hitting your big brother in the back of the head with a giant slush ball).

With the sun

down, the tent up, and a blazing campfire going, the next thing was to

cook dinner. (A personal note: baked beans, sleeping bags, and a small

tent don't go together.) Before we turned in, the boy wanted to knowwhere

the bathroom was. I took him outside the tent and said, "Way over

there someplace." He said with a surprised look on his face, "Yeah,

right, Dad. There's nothing out there but a bunch of trees and woods.

Where is the real bathroom?"

On his way

back from the "bathroom" he stopped of at a tree near the camp.

"Dad, this sign says that we are in the middle of a wildlife area

and the rangers have been having trouble with the bears coming into camps.

We need to hang up our food at night and burn any paper wrappings. If

a bear comes into our camp we need to wave our arms, yell, scream, jump

up and down, and throw things to scare it away." I told him that

if a bear comes into camp tonight that he can be assured I will be doing

all of the above.

The next morning

we set off to fish the streams for mountain trout, and I was telling the

boy all along the way to be extremely careful while fishing off of the

banks. I said, "The water's very cold this time of year and you don't

want to slip and fall in." For two hours I asked him to be careful,

but he did not listen, and you guessed it: Dad fell in.

People with

hypothermia will generally exhibit shivering, "goose bumps",

stiffening muscles, un-coordination, disorientation and confusion (I have

felt this way before, during, and after many a test in college). Re-warming

of a person with severe hypothermia should not be tried unless travel

time to a medical facility is more than 20 minutes. Most patients who

die due to re-warming do so from ventricular fibrillation and need to

be in a hospital prior to this type of treatment.

What can be

done safely? Remove all wet clothing carefully and cover the patient keeping

them warm and protected from the cold. When uncontrolled shivering stops

and the patient shows signs of re-warming, only then give warm fluids

That night

there come up a bad cloud. The wind howled, the rain poured, but we were

warm and dry in our little tent. The boy woke up a couple of times to

sounds, he thought, of bears coming into the camp. Assuring him that it

was only the wind he went