Proper Procedure After Falling Through The Ice

[TMF89]

Hey guys, lets say I fall through, pull myself back through with my ice picks. What do I do from there? I imagine just try to make it back to my car, fully clothed, but what do I do when I get there? Take off all my bulky outerwear? Everything? Nothing? Then just sit there with the heat on full and try to make it home?

[IcemanMN]

I saw something on Man vs. Wild once on Discovery and he said, you better off taking all your wet layers off.

[muc33]

True on getting off the layers of wet clothing. But also take note as to how far you have to travel to get to safety. Wet clothes with any wind is no good and when you fall through and get rescued, the first thing you can expect is to get your clothes cut off of you. If you can make it to your vehicle, wrap in dry clothes, or blanket, call for help if possible. I would not suggest driving unless you have to, hypothermia can cause many things including blackouts, vision problems and more. I would suggest getting help first, by honking or calling.

[epkirkman]

If you go through, get help as soon as possible getting out is half the battle.

I am a former U.S. Coast Guard Small Boat Coxswain, trained in Cold Water Recovery. You are going to want to get your wet, cold clothing off as soon as possible. In the scenario you brought up, I would crank the heat, sit in my car and call for help as soon possible, I would lay on my horn if I had to in order to get attention.

Don't try to drive anywhere if at all possible. Most hypothermia victims are shaking so uncontrollably that they have very little control over their hands, let alone their fingers.

Here is a little info on hypothermia..

Treatment for hypothermia consists of drying, sheltering, and gradually warming the person. While blankets help a person retain body heat, they are not sufficient to treat hypothermia. In the field, a mildly hypothermic person can be effectively rewarmed through close body contact from a companion and by drinking warm, sweet liquids.

Moderate and severe cases of hypothermia require immediate evacuation and treatment in a hospital. In hospital, warming is accomplished by external techniques such as heated blankets for mild hypothermia and by more invasive techniques such as warm fluids injected in the veins or even lavage (washing) of the bladder, stomach, chest and abdominal cavities with warmed fluids for severely hypothermic patients.[citation needed] These patients are at high risk for arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats), and care must be taken to minimize jostling and other disturbances until they have been sufficiently warmed, as these arrhythmias are very difficult to treat while the victim is still cold.

An important tenet of treatment is that a person is not dead until they are warm and dead. Remarkable accounts of recovery after prolonged cardiac arrest have been reported in patients with hypothermia. This is presumably because the low temperature prevents some of the cellular damage that occurs when blood flow and oxygen are lost for an extended period of time

Hope that helps, stay safe.

Ed

[Neiko]

Look it up on the internet. Discovery channel had a video of this Canadian Professor who showed what happened when you fell in the water and what to do to get out. He made it look so easy. He went through all the stages of it from going in to getting out and you could see how his body reacted to it. I sent it to all my buddies last week.

[Dances with Walleye]

All good advice above...

Also...

I keep a complete change of clothes, plus a junk jacket & Boots along with a thermal blanket in my truck at all times... I'm a 6'5" amature body builder, so my clothes will fit any of my friends should they go through.

That way if something does happen I (or they) can get out of wet clothing and into dry, instead of wet to Nude etc...

Also while I don't use heater pads in my gloves or boots. (Because they cause sweating which bites you in the butt later on) I do keep a bunch of them them with me, for added help should something happen.

[Fisher_Johnson]

I would second the suggestion of finding the video. I believe it was from the Discovery Channel in Canada. Some very good info. Simple things, like don't pull yourself up onto the ice. Flaten youself out parallel to the ice and kick so you slide onto the ice and then roll away. Also, if you can't get yourself out of the water, throw your arms onto the ice, the plan is that your arms will freeze to the ice so when you pass out, you won't fall into the water and you'll be visible to potential help.

[Scott K]

Im not going to argue with anyones coments. I have fallen in, and was about a mile from my truck. It was about -10 outside. I just want to say, if it wasnt for having someone with me at the time, I would have drownd.

I would recommend after getting out of the water and on safe ice, ring out any outer layer of clothes you have on, ( hat, coat,emptywater from boots ect..) then put them back on as quick as possible, the outer layer will freeze solid, and work as a wind break, and it keeps heat in pretty well. Then when you are back to your car, strip off all wet clothes and wrap yourself with any dry clothes you have, or that someone else will let you use, start the car run heater.

When I fell in, this information is what I did, and worked well, I had a mile walk back to the truck. I have to say the walk back warmed me up alot. My skin was ice cold because of the wet clothes, but my body core temp wasnt to bad do to the walk back. This may not be the best info, just first hand info that worked well for me. The best thing to do is just prevent yourself from falling in, if its questionable dont go out, the fish will be there in a week or so when there is more ice!

[stpauliguy]

Hey guys hopefully none of us will ever have to deal with this but heres that video that was brought up earlier. Pretty interesting, especially the part about freezing arms on ice! (Makes a ton of sense to me) http://www.exn.ca/video/?Video=exn20020325-icewater.asx

[icehousebob]

I've gone through the ice a few times in my mis-spent life. The roughest one was when I was 18 and dropped through above a beaver dam while running a trap line before school in the morning. I pulled myself out and comenced running toward a farm house about one and a half miles away. I had water sloshing in my boots and my clothes froze stiff but as long as I kept moving I was okay. When I got to the house, I stripped down and got in a warm shower,,, horribly painful, but I warmed up and even made it to school on time. That was 40 years ago. Now I would just lay down and die. It would be much easier.