Very early on a freezing January morning my colleague, an A&E doctor, saw a 91-year-old patient. She was the coldest person he’d ever encountered who was not dead. She was so cold, he said, “that she made your hand cold when you touched her”. The ambulance crew had covered her in blankets, with one wrapped round her head like a towel. All you could see was her face; she was alert, with her eyes open. The previous evening, she’d slipped and fallen on her front step and spent the night in her porch. She had a suspected broken hip, but her most urgent problem was hypothermia. The average human body temperature is about 37 degrees centigrade. Mrs J’s was 28. People who fall into rivers or the sea can develop hypothermia very obviously and rapidly. But other groups are also vulnerable: elderly people who live in poorly heated houses; rough sleepers; alcoholics; and wilderness sports enthusiasts caught in bad weather. The common theme is failing to recognise when you’re growing dangerously cold. Shivering is an early sign; if you can’t stop yourself shivering – that is, if it’s uncontrollable – then you are already too cold. via FT.com .

Original Source of Warm drinks and Bear hugs: how to handle hypothermia