Brought to the hospital with a body temperature of 24.5 degrees! 0 12

24.5 degrees is the lowest body temperature at which a patient was successfully saved after being found frozen and brought to the hospital. At the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital (PSKUS), a special method of warming up the frozen is used during these frosty days, reports the Latvian TV program Panorāma this evening. In addition to a warming blanket and fluids, a specific device is also activated that warms the frozen invasively – through a catheter inserted into a vein. This must be done very slowly to avoid worsening the already serious health condition.

This is not a surgery, but a special manipulation. A special catheter is inserted into the vein of the patient found frozen, and warm fluid circulates through it, warming the chilled body.

"Here is warm water. It circulates through the equipment. It can also be placed in the neck. This is the catheter. The catheter connects to the device. There are balloons, warm fluid circulates. Patients need to be warmed very slowly. 0.6 degrees to one degree per hour," said emergency doctor Evgeny Kravchuk from the hospital to Latvian TV.

The hospital noted: if there are even the slightest signs of life, the person must be saved.

"We saw [a person] with a temperature of 24.5 degrees [temperature]. Signs of life were barely expressed. Here we work with those who are the most severe, with a temperature of 28 [degrees]. They are often unconscious, with heart rhythm disturbances," noted Dr. Kravchuk.

During this cold time, doctors are concerned that patients are often brought directly from home. Relatives, neighbors, or caregivers found seniors helpless.

"They fell, say, due to illness, in an unheated room. And alongside the main illness, cooling occurred, which only complicates their condition. Just a few hours in an unheated room or a room with poor insulation, lying on the ground, is enough. [It is necessary to ensure] that the house is heated, that the window is not opened. And if a relative does not respond to calls for a long time or does not meet, they must be visited to find out if everything is okay," said Roberts Furmanis, head of the Emergency Medicine Center at Stradiņš Hospital.