hypo bag

OUR HYPOTHERMIA BAG

Today I received a call from an Army member who works search and rescue in Oregon. He wanted to know the temperature rating for the hypothermia bag.

I told him we use the L-12 Lamilite that we use in our 20 degree Ultra-Light sleeping bag, but he had to understand the victim could be in a summer situation as well as a winter situation so the hypothermia bag’s purpose was to keep the victim from going into shock or warm them to bring them out of shock.

He then proceeded to tell me he was writing an article for a medical publication and high lighting the hypothermia bag because it kept a female victim at body temperature for, I believe 13 hours.

I do not know all of the particulars at this time but will reprint the article when I have a copy.

Because of where she was, they had to call in a Coast Guard chopper even though inland and one of the swimmers (no water) was lowered to her and they put the victim in not one but two hypothermia bags [my opinion one would have sufficed but they had two so they used both]. Her temperature was so low they believed she would die. The upshot is she warmed very quickly once in the bags.

He wanted to know why? I explained the uniform loft of the hypothermia bags are just like the sleeping bags we produce. The warmth of her body was trapped in the cavity of the hypothermia bags so she warmed quickly.

He then told me she did not pee and the doctors did not understand why. I explained when the human body is cold the bodies mechanism stops sending blood to the extremities and as such since the blood is moving through less area blood pressure increases so the kidneys star removing water in the blood sending it to the bladder; so, you pee.

But if you whole body is warm that does not happen so the need to pee was just put off. Had she peed she still would have stayed warm. I asked if they had checked her feet, if so, I am sure her toes would have been warm.

I have offered here a snapshot of the whole search and rescue effort which warms my heart.

It is extremely gratifying to know that a product that we make at Wiggy’s has saved a person’s life. I know there have been many more such instances but this is a first for it to be written about in a medical journal because of how long she was kept in the hypothermia bag which amazed the rescuers and the doctor