Hypothermia is a condition in which body temperature falls drastically as a result of the exposure to the cold. The average temperature of the human body is 37 degrees Celsius. If the body temperature drops a few degrees above or below the person is at serious risk, if it drops below it is called hypothermia. It can occur rapidly, during cold water immersion with the temperature of the water at around 10 degrees Celsius and below. It depends on how long the person is immersed. Safety experts estimate that half of all drowning victims actually die from the fatal effects of cold water, or hypothermia, and not from water filled lungs.

A person can be exposed to hypothermia when they are in cold weather and improperly dressed or submerged in cool water for a long period of time. There are even reported cases of elderly people dyin

The symptoms of hypothermia are difficulty in walking, shallow breathing, stumbling, a bloated face, confusion, slurred speech, shivering, drowsiness, weakness/fatigue, trembling on one side of the body, and a weak pulse. In cases of severe hypothermia, breathing becomes slow and shallow, the person may become unconscious, the muscles are often stiff, brain damage, and the heart may beat only faintly and irregularly to the point where it can be undetectable. Do to these difficulties, death can easily occur. In cases of hypothermia the victim requires immediate medical attention. They can be treated by covering the body's "hot-spots" (where a great deal of heat is lost). These "hot-spots" are the head, neck, sides, and groin. They can be covered with hot water bottles, heating blankets, or warm moist towels. Another method of treating hypothermia is in halation rewarming. It is when a patient is given an inhalation of warm, water-saturated air at the temperature of 43-45 degrees Celsius. This is effective when wanting to stabilize a victim. In the New England Journal of Medicine studies show that using a procedure known as cardiopulmonary bypass to rewarm the blood has successful long term effects in some accidental hypothermia patients. The bypass procedure is a major heart operation that stops the heart.(Dr. Harold L. Lazar, 1) A person suffering from hypothermia should not be given anything to drink, especially alcohol since alcohol can lower

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