Jul 20, 2023 14:00:00

Body bags are effective in treating heatstroke

When symptoms of heat stroke appear, it is effective to immediately move to a cool place and cool the body as an emergency measure. David Kim, who is studying as a resident in the field of emergency medicine at Stanford University, points out that the most effective way to cool the body is a ``cold water bath'', and a body bag is used to perform cold water bathing efficiently. suggested to use

A body bag can save your life: a novel method of cold water immersion for heat stroke treatment - Kim - 2020 - Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians Open - Wiley Online Library

https://doi.org/10.1002/emp2.12007

Cold water bathing is widely known as a means of rapid cooling for heat stroke patients, and it provides a cooling speed that cannot be achieved by evaporative cooling, such as spraying water mist and fanning the patient, or counter-logistics cooling, such as cooling with an electric fan. It has been with.

However, in emergency medical settings, it is difficult to take a cold water bath due to logistics restrictions, and heat stroke patients are often subjected to evaporation or logistics cooling. Mr. Kim introduced an episode that could be a stepping stone to improve this situation.

One day, an 87-year-old woman with a history of

non-invasive cancer was found unconscious after collapsing in the extreme heat. When ambulance crews rushed to the scene, it was found that the woman's core temperature had reached 40 degrees, and an attempt was made to cool her body with a cooling pack during transportation.

After arriving at the emergency department, paramedics transferred the woman to a pre-prepared body bag and began cooling the body bag with ice and tap water. He added water to the height of his armpit, closed the bag up to his neck, and observed the progress of his body temperature.

This procedure normalized the patient's mental state within 10 minutes of cooling and reduced his body temperature to 38.4°C. Subsequent examinations were all normal, and the patient himself declared that he was in good health with no aftereffects at follow-up one week after discharge from the hospital.

``Waterproof body bags are available in all hospitals, are portable, and can be purchased for a quarter of the price of existing cold water tubs,'' Kim et al. He argues that body bags may play an effective role in emergency medical settings.

Kim et al., who summarized these cases in a paper, said, ``Here we report an example of resuscitation by soaking cold water in a body bag for an elderly patient with heat stroke.As far as we know, this is a heat stroke. This is the first report of the use of body bags for treatment, and we suggest that emergency departments likely to encounter patients with heatstroke should have body bags and the cold water bath process readily available.” rice field.