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Careful in the Cold

There’s cold, and then there’s the kind of cold we’ve experienced lately.  Doctors see a variety of frostbite and hypothermia cases eac...

 

There's cold, and then there's the kind of cold we've experienced lately.  Doctors see a variety of frostbite and hypothermia cases each year, but the big reminder is that they are preventable.

Winter in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania can be brutal.  Bit it can also offer a lot of fun activities, if you don't mind a chill in the air.  Sled riding and ice fishing are two popular picks around here.  And so far, people seem to be bundling up properly.

"We've been fairly lucky this year. We haven't seen too many major cases of frostbite and things like that," said Dr. Ronald Strony, Director of Emergency Medicine at Geisinger Wyoming Valley.  The first thing he wanted to talk about was frostbite, when your tissue freezes.

"Your fingers, your toes, your ears, the tip of your nose are the most common areas. The cells freeze, and the tissue dies," said Dr. Strony.

When it comes to frostbite, your skin my turn very pale or very red, and might be hard or waxy looking.  You may also experience a prickly feeling or numbness.

Hypothermia is when the core body temperature drops below a certain temperature.  There are varying degrees of it, but it can be life-threatening.  In adults: look for uncontrolled shivering, confusion, memory loss, slurred speech or drowsiness.  In infants, hypothermia can cause bright red, cold skin and very low energy.

Dr. Strony says outdoor exposure injuries are certainly possible if you're not properly dressed.  But he stresses it's especially important to check on elderly relatives and friends who aren't even outside.

"We see, often times, very distressing cases where people may not have heat in their houses or don't have the ability to pay utility bills, so the heat gets turned off and they end up getting hypothermia while indoors," Dr. Strony told us.

Frostbite and hypothermia can go hand in hand, but they don't always.  Doctors say if someone is showing signs of frostbite they should get help, but hypothermia in particular requires immediate medical attention.

"Obviously you want to keep all exposed areas covered, limit exposure time, especially if the wind chill is very low."

 

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