The last thing I remember hearing my brother say before the ice gave way was a surprisingly unemotional “uh oh.” A second later he was struggling in 30 feet of water to pull himself out of the river’s current and back onto solid ice.
The ice fishing gear he was holding quickly swept under the ice, but was the least of our worries. As he half swam and half clawed at the slippery ice, I slid on my belly to get close enough to give him a hand. Working together, we slid him out of the freezing water and back onto hard ice. | | Indiana fisherman Al Kirchoff lands a fish. Unhooking a fish and resetting a tip-up require ice fishermen to remove their gloves and get their hands wet. The task can result in frostnip if hands aren’t warmed soon after finishing. |
After crawling our way off the remaining ice, we wasted ten minutes thanking the heavens for our survival but soon realized the danger had not yet passed.
Besides the shoulder he dislocated when he initially fell, it was getting colder by the minute. As we stood on the bank of the Saginaw River in Michigan in the five-degree air, his clothes froze solid before our eyes and he started shivering uncontrollably.
We both knew he had to get warm and dry as soon as possible because hypothermia was setting in.
After several hours in a Michigan hospital, his shoulder was back in place and his body temperature was back to 98 degrees.
That ordeal happened 15 years ago and since then both my brother and I have ice fished all over North America in some of the coldest places on the continent. We learned a lot from the mistakes made that day and currently have a better understanding of the signs, symptoms and dangers of hypothermia, frost bite and frost nip.
Anyone ice fishing Indiana’s current cold snap should understand these dangers as well.
Hypothermia occurs when a person’s internal body temperature dips below 95 degrees. There are several symptoms.
My brother’s uncontrolled shivering was our first signal that something was wrong, but shivering alone can be misleading. Once the body reaches extremely low temperatures, shivering stops.
A person suffering from hypothermia also often displays a loss of coordination, confusion and drowsiness and has pale skin.
In severe cases, breathing and heart rate slows and there is cyanosis (blueness of skin). Victims are also often disoriented and have trouble speaking.
Treat hypothermia by raising the internal body temperature as soon as possible. Failure to treat the problem can lead to cardiac arrest, shock, and coma and be fatal.
While not always life threatening, frostbite can permanently scar and disfigure a person if not avoided or treated immediately. Frostbite is temporary (superficial) or permanent (deep) skin tissue damage caused by a prolonged skin tissue temperature of 23 degrees and below.
Ears, nose, hands and feet are the most susceptible to frostbite, though it can happen to any exposed skin.
Frostbite often accompanies hypothermia and should be treated swiftly to prevent tissue death (gangrene) and infection.
Though much less serious, frostnip is the most common problem for ice fishermen. It is the superficial freezing of the outer layer of skin.
Affected areas turn white due to decreased blood circulation. There is a stinging sensation when it is occurring as well as when the skin is thawing and blood starts re-circulating through the affected areas.
Frostnip often occurs during vigorous ice fishing activities such as drilling holes, erecting shelters and trudging across snow covered ice. Symptoms become apparent only after the victim stops exercising and cools down.
Neither my brother nor I suffered any lasting medical problems as a result of our accident on the ice in Michigan. We did, however, gain a lifelong respect for severe cold and the dangers associated with ice fishing.
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