Treating hypothermia

Hypothermia is treated by preventing further heat being lost and by gently warming the patient.

You should seek immediate medical attention if you suspect someone has hypothermiaasit can be life threatening.

  • Once the person is in a warm environment, carefully remove any wet clothing and dry them.
  • Wrap them in warm blankets, towels, orcoats (whatever you have available), protecting their head and torso first.
  • Encourage the person to shiver if they're capable of doing so.
  • If possible, give the person warm drinks (not alcohol) or high-energy foods, such as chocolate, to help warm them up. But onlydo this if they can swallow normally ask them to cough to see if they can swallow.
  • Once the person's body temperature has increased, keep them warm and dry.
  • It's important to handle a personwith hypothermia gently and carefully.

    Things to avoid

    There are certain things you shouldn't do when helping someone with hypothermia because it may make the condition worse:

    • don't put the cold person into a hot bath
    • don't massage their limbs
    • don't use heating lamps
    • don't give them alcohol to drink

    Trying to warm someone up yourself with hot water, massages, heat pads and heat lamps can cause the blood vessels in the arms and legs to open up too quickly.

    If this happens, it can lead to a dramatic fall in blood pressure to the vital organs such as the brain, heart, lungs and kidneys, potentially resulting in cardiac arrest and death.

    Severe hypothermia

    If someone you know has been exposed to the cold and they're distressed or confused, they have slow, shallow breathing or they're unconscious, they may have severe hypothermia. Their skin may look healthy but feel cold. Babies may also be limp, unusually quiet and refuse to feed.

    Cases of severe hypothermia require urgent medical treatment in hospital. You should call 999 to request an ambulance if you suspect someone has severe hypothermia.

    As the body temperature drops, shivering will stop completely. The heart rate will slow and a person will gradually lose consciousness. They won't appear to have a pulse or be breathing.If you know how to do it, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should be given while you wait for help to arrive.

    Medical treatment

    If someone is admitted to hospital with severe hypothermia, advanced medical treatment can be used to warm them up.

    This can be done by temporarily withdrawing blood from the body, warming it and thenreturning it to the body.These techniques are cardiopulmonary bypass (sometimes called heart-lung bypass) and extra corporeal membranous oxygenation (ECMO).

    However, these techniques are only available in major hospitals that have specialist emergency services or units that regularly perform heart surgery.

    A person with severe hypothermia often stands a better chance of surviving if they're taken directly by ambulance to one of these hospitals, even if it means bypassing a smaller hospital along the way.

    Content supplied by the NHS Website

    Medically Reviewed by a doctor on 5 Jan 2017