No One Should Die of Hypothermia

If you watch the local or national news from time to time it would have been hard to miss the story of missing Country Western singer Craig Strickland, who was missing for over a week, until he was found dead, of Hypothermia.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Division found the country singer’s body in Bear Creek Cove on Monday, over a week after Strickland went missing during a duck hunting trip. The 29-year-old’s wife, Helen, says in a new post that he died of hypothermia.

“The night of the accident he had fought his way out of the water and up a hill before the stages of hypothermia set in,” she wrote on Instagram. “He experienced no pain in his final moments and simply felt like he was falling asleep.”

According to the Mayo Clinic - Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around 98.6 F (37 C). Hypothermia occurs as your body temperature passes below 95 F (35 C).

When your body temperature drops, your heart, nervous system and other organs can't work normally. Left untreated, hypothermia can eventually lead to complete failure of your heart and respiratory system and to death.

Hypothermia is most often caused by exposure to cold weather or immersion in a cold body of water. Primary treatments for hypothermia are methods to warm the body back to a normal temperature.

In other words Be Able to Build A Fire!

How hard would it be to carry a water proof container with a lighter, some greased cotton balls, dyer lint, water proof matches and/or a fire striker? In fact, if you are out on the water or are leaving your survival camp during a rain or threat of thunderstorm, why not pre-build your fire pit and have kindling and wood collected and ready so if you became submersed or drenched you could much quicker build a fire to warm up and dry out. 

Stay Prepared! Stay Alive!

Charlie