First aid for frostbite: do's and don'ts

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Breaking these rules can cost your fingers, or even the tip of your nose.

What is frostbite

Doctors call Frostbite frostbite a trauma caused by cold. The mechanism here is simple Frostbite: How to Spot, Treat and Prevent It. When the ambient temperature drops, our body drastically constricts the external blood vessels. This stops blood flow in and under the skin and helps prevent heat from escaping, which is necessary for the normal functioning of internal organs.

If it is not very cold or you are in the frost for a short time, nothing dangerous happens. Otherwise, circulatory disorders can become deeper and lead to severe, often irreversible consequences.

In very cold (-15 ° C and below) and windy weather, frostbite can occur in just 5 minutes.

How to recognize frostbite

Mild form

Even at the initial stage, the symptoms of frostbite are quite obvious:

• The affected areas - as a rule, these are the hands, toes, nose, cheeks, ears - become cold, as if the smallest needles tingle them.
• The skin partially loses its sensitivity, grows numb.
• A part of the body may turn white and then turn red.
• Muscles, joints stiffen, accuracy and ease of movement disappear.

This stage is safe. The only problem is that due to the loss of skin sensitivity, you may not be aware that frostbite is increasing. And here there is already a risk of serious injury.

Superficial frostbite

The reddened skin turns pale again, becomes hard and waxy. But at the same time, you may feel a sudden warmth in your newly seemingly numb fingers, ears, nose or cheeks … This is not a good sign. The body realizes that the outer tissues are in serious danger, and in a desperate attempt to save them, it dilates the peripheral vessels, providing a sharp rush of warm blood.

If you return to the warmth at this stage, the frostbite skin will begin to thaw and, possibly, its color will become uneven - this is normal. You may also find severe redness, burning, and / or swelling, and 12 to 36 hours after a cold injury, flaking or small fluid-filled blisters.

Deep frostbite

If you do not escape from the cold in time, the body will lose hope of warming the outer layers of the skin and again close the peripheral vessels to keep the heat inside. And now this is already really dangerous.

The skin will become more and more waxy, and the muscles and joints will continue to stiffen. In the cold, these changes are practically painless. But frostbite penetrates deeply, impaired blood circulation leads to the death of tissues. And when you return to warmth, the situation can become critical: pain and swelling will appear.

Within hours, large, painful blisters will grow on the skin, and the tissues underneath will turn black and harden. This means that the part of the body affected by the cold has died.

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to restore it, except with the help of prosthetics.

How to provide first aid for initial frostbite

With a mild form of frostbite, it is enough to simply return to warmth and warm up - for example, drink hot tea. Note: Warming should be gradual. Do not stick injured fingers into hot water - a sharp temperature drop can harm the vessels.

Are you warm? You can again return to the snow and frost.

If it is far from the heat, try not to let the body understand that you are freezing and something is threatening the internal organs. To do this, maintain maximum mobility: walk quickly, or even run to the house or actively jump in place, clap your hands, pat your nose, cheeks and ears.

How to provide first aid for superficial or deep frostbite

If it comes to superficial or deep frostbite, the scheme of action changes.

It is forbidden:

• Rub and massage the affected areas. Spasmodic vessels become brittle, and there is a high risk of damage to them, which will lead to bruising and worsen the situation. The body will react to subcutaneous bleeding by narrowing the vessels that lie deeper.
• Warm up sharply. This, again, will have a bad effect on spasmodic vessels. If you want to speed up the warming, you can first put your hands or feet in water at room temperature: after frost, it will seem quite warm to you anyway.
• Drink alcohol. Alcohol dilates peripheral vessels. As a result, due to the rush of blood to the skin, you temporarily become warmer, but the body is intensively losing heat - hypothermia is possible. In addition, as soon as the effect of alcohol is reduced, the body will try to cover the loss of heat by “collapsing” as many peripheral blood vessels as possible, which will aggravate the symptoms of frostbite.
• Ignore. Frostbite lesions of the skin and even subcutaneous tissue can be irreversible. Therefore, it is extremely important to take action on time.

Necessary:

• Return to warmth immediately!
• Monitor the condition and, if tissue edema lasts longer than a few hours, and blisters or fluid-filled blisters appear on the skin, consult a doctor. In no case do not pierce the bubbles yourself: you run the risk of infecting. This should be done by a specialist (of course, if there is such a need).
• Contact a physician or emergency room as soon as possible if you notice blackening of the skin.
• Take ibuprofen or another pain reliever if thawing discomfort seems too strong.
• If a frozen person becomes ill, he does not show signs of life or the darkening of tissues is noticeable, immediately call an ambulance.

How to prevent frostbite

This point may seem overkill, but still recall the safety rules.

• Keep an eye on the weather forecast and try not to walk for a long time if the temperature drops below -15 ° С. Not so low values may be dangerous if they are accompanied by high humidity and wind.
• Dress for the weather. Ideally, use the principle of layering. On frosty days, put on three layers of clothing: a thin bottom that wicks away excess moisture and does not release heat (thermal underwear), a dense breathable medium (fleece works best) and a warm top (a warmed jacket or down jacket with wind and moisture resistant properties).
• Use protective cosmetics - so-called cold creams. They create a thin, greasy layer on cold-prone areas of the skin that helps to retain heat and moisture.
• Do not drink alcohol on the street! To a knee-deep drunk not only the sea, but also the cold. You run the risk of not noticing the dangerous symptoms of frostbite and hypothermia. Depending on the degree, the latter is fraught with different consequences: from a decrease in immunity and the risk of getting sick to problems with the cardiovascular system and other internal organs.
• Elderly people and those who suffer from certain circulatory disorders (for example, diabetics) should be especially careful. Also, frostbite can occur more quickly in young children and people with low body fat.
• Learn to recognize and respond to frostbite symptoms in time. This will help keep you and those around you healthy.