PrepperMed 101: I am So Cold – Recognizing & Treating Hypothermia

"Hypothermia is weird.  It can incapacitate a person very quickly; within minutes after immersion in icy water.  However, as one EMT explained it to me, 'They’re not dead until they are warm and dead.'  People have been revived, without brain damage no less, after more than nine hours of immersion in cold water.  The cold slows the metabolism, and with the very slow metabolism the cells can live a very long time with no oxygen.  The key is obviously to get the person warmed up; but there are some tricks to doing this with the least chance of having the heart misbehave with tragic consequences."