A billy to beat hypothermia

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 1

A billy to beat hypothermia

Kiwi ingenuity will enable rescuers to administer essential on-the-spot treatment to ease the effects of hypothermia and frostbite known to be afflicting the trapped climbers.

A simple resuscitator, designed to allow the men to breathe warm air, was constructed hurriedly on Tuesday evening by Mr Gary Rees, the resident St John ambulance officer at Mount Cook.

Mr Rees adapted an old tea billy and other “bits and pieces” to construct the device, which will help to raise their body heat by the safest possible method. "Our aim is to warm the

core of the body first,” said Dr Dick Price, of Oamaru, who is on stand-by at Mount Cook.

“The problem with hypothermia is that the body shuts down the circulation of blood to the limbs and their extremities to maintain the essential cool temperature of the heart, lungs, and brain,” he said.

“Any sudden warming of a patient’s limbs, by soaking in hot water for instance, can cause a lot of problems by shunting cold blood back to the body’s vital organs.” Although the two climbers have been protected from the full fury of the storm which has pinned them in an ice cave near the summit,

they have been breathing air at near their own temperature for more than 10 days. Dr Price believes it will be essential to raise the men’s body heat as soon as they are reached. The specially adapted “billy and bits” device will allow this to be accomplished simply. Water in the billy is heated on a primus. The resulting steam passes through a tube, to raise the air temperature being breathed to preferably about 40 deg.

The steam-air mixture can be controlled through a valve, and oxygen can be added as required. “This way, you warm them relatively slowly and you can

apply it on the spot,” said Mr Rees.

“We could not find anything in New Zealand that would do the same sort of job.

“Of course, it has lots of other advantages — you can have a brew at the same time ...,” he said.

Similar equipment was used effectively in the Himalayas in 1977, by the New Zealand Everest expedition. In the last year, Mount Cook National Park staff have further developed the procedure which was recently promoted by a visiting Canadian expert bn hypothermia, Dr John Hayward.