Frostbite: The cold hard facts

RC Tripathi, a retired group captain of the Indian Air Force had a close encounter with frostbite in 2003 amidst a mountaineering expedition that took an unpleasant turn.

The 58-year-old who hails from Uttarakhand was among the team of 20 mountaineers from the Indian Air Force scaling mount Kamet in Uttarakhand, which was a pre-expedition training for the Mount Everest expedition.

It was the last leg of the climb. The group was inching towards the summit. Tripathi who was leading the group was barely 200 feet short of reaching the pinnacle when one of his teammates developed hypothermia, an abnormally low body temperature due to continued exposure to extreme cold.

Hypothermia causes exhaustion, memory loss and loss of body coordination, and can be fatal in the absence of immediate medical attention.

READ MORE :

How to deal with bee stings?

How to manage a jellyfish sting

What to do when a scorpion stings

Be it a dog bite or scratch, anti-rabies vaccination is essential

Abandoning his summit push, Tripathi rushed to rescue his fellow climber.

“The climber was out of control and had to be tied and dragged down to the summit camp. He was oxygenated and tended to immediately,” he says. In the frantic attempts at saving a life, Tripathi and his co-climbers had to abandon their gloves, goggles and other safety gear. “The next morning, three of us began experiencing numbness and severe pain in the hands and toes. It dawned upon us that we were severely frostbitten.”

What is frostbite?

“Frostbites are caused by the freezing of the skin and tissues due to exposure to extreme cold, especially sub-zero temperatures, restricting the blood flow to the affected areas,” says Dr Sarosh Ahmed Khan, senior consultant, internal medicine and director, Naseem Medical Center, Srinagar. He adds that frostbites usually affect the body’s extremities, including the nose tip, fingertips, toes and ears.

Stages of frostbite

Frostbites are divided into four stages based on severity.

“On continued exposure, symptoms can escalate to affect deeper layers of the skin and tissues, causing stiffness of the muscles and discolouration of the skin ranging from white to bluish-grey and eventually black. In severe cases, the restricted blood flow to the affected areas may warrant an amputation,” says Dr Akshay Chauhan, an ayurvedic physician at Sahni Clinic, Himachal Pradesh.

Treating frostbite

“While the others were air evacuated by a helicopter, the weather played spoilsport when my turn came, preventing the helicopter from landing,” says Tripathi.

As the vagaries of the weather continued, Tripathi had to come to Delhi by road, where he finally sought treatment. He recovered over the next three to four months, while two of his co-mountaineers involved in the rescue had their fingers amputated.

Elaborating on the treatment for frostbites, Dr Chauhan recommends gradual warming of the affected part by immersing the area in warm saline water (37c to 39c).

Dr Khan points out that medicines like ointments and vasodilators (medications that open blood vessels) are effective modes of treatment. “Infected and ulcerated frostbites are treated with antibiotics and dressing.”

A study published in the Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine has found hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to be effective in treating the damaging effects of frostbite and curbing further tissue damage. HBOT supplies high concentrations of oxygen to the injured tissues, preventing further tissue damage and promoting tissue repair.

Ways to prevent frostbite

Dr Khan lists the ways to prevent frostbite:

• Keep warm by wearing appropriate clothing.
• Avoid wearing wet socks, gloves and headgear.
• Ensure continuous movement of hands and feet for proper blood circulation and to prevent any chances of blood clotting.
• Hydrate yourself with lots of fluids.

The incident didn’t deter Tripathi’s spirit or his love for the mountains. He has completed more than 15 expeditions since then, conquering Mount Everest in 2005, becoming the first air warrior from the Indian Air Force to achieve the feat. In 2017 he also became the first Indian in the armed services to climb all the highest peaks of all seven continents as part of the ‘mission seven summits’ expedition launched by the Indian Air Force.

“I have always been a highlander. When it comes to adventure sports, the sky is the limit for me,” he says.

Takeaways

• The skin and tissues can freeze due to extremely cold temperatures. This is called frostbite.
• There are varying degrees of frostbites based on severity.
• The symptoms range from a swelling and tingling sensation on the skin to discolouration and muscle stiffness.
• Keeping warm by wearing appropriate protective clothing can help reduce frostbite.