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Cold Water Rescue - Wyoming Style...
submitted by Dana, out west....

I belong to a small ambulance service that covers hundreds of square miles at the base of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming. At 5 a.m. one cold winter morning we were called out to a one vehicle rollover. With the wind chill it was 40 below zero. Rural fire, city fire and a neighboring fire department were also dispatched. That is never a good sign when 3 fire departments are dispatched. We arrived to find a truck/suv on it's roof in the half-frozen river. A bystander told us there was someone trapped and he could hear her yelling. He told us to just wade out there and get her. We said, "Do we look like firemen?" Once the fire crews arrived it took them over 30 minutes to stabilize the vehicle and extricate the occupant. Their equipment kept shutting down because of the cold. I thought we were losing the patient because she would stop making noise, but one of our EMT/firemen would yell at her and she would yell again. All you could see was her face and a leg every now and then when she would thrash around. When we got her into the ambulance and got her frozen clothes cut off, we realized the ice we kept trying to brush off of her abdomen was actually frozen skin. The firemen said they stayed warm as long as they were in the water. When they hit dry land their bunker gear froze and they couldn't walk up the embankment. Two days later the 17 year old patient went home without any lasting injuries. Wilderness experts told us the water saved her life. It kept her warm. Imagine that.

Moral of the Story: Stop Crying over 20 degree temps! You Big SISSY!

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