Chuck rote: > When that capsize comes unexpected, the surprise and coldness of just > mildly cold water often causes them to inhale. This has nothing to do > with hypthermia and may not even be cold enough to be called cold > shock. When we rolled in near freezing water, a few years back, we were partly saved by our Chillcheater outfits - which kept the water out for a while - but the Musto fleece hats kept our heads warm, thus prevented us from mking any possible fatal inhalations. > None-the-less, just one inhalation under water is enough to > cause drowning. What witnesses usually report is seeing the victim > struggling at the surface for a few seconds or minutes before the > victim disappears, which happens when lung function fails. In colder > water, heart failure sometimes occurs, but seems unlikely here. > Swimming failure due to numbing of the limbs in cold water also seems > unlikely since the water wasn't all that cold. This latter happened to us while swimming to safety, but the real problem were the wader boots, that really slowed our swim to a crawl. The rocks were only 50 meters (or so) away, but it took a fairtime to swim and the weight of the water inside the boots made it almost impossible to climb up onto the rocks. So warm hat and no waders will very possibly save your life! Take care, Tord -- Be Yourself _at_ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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