# When you die of hypothermia at sea... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092 "2012-04-17T22:54:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/1 "2012-04-17T22:54:56Z")
do you generally lose consciousness and drown, or does your heart or other systems just shut down and kill you even if your head never goes under water. I’m guessing the second would happen sooner or later, but but assuming you had a good life jacket, how much longer would you last than if you didn’t? Or is it even possible you’d last longer without a life jacket because paddling around would generate some heat? Need answer fast. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/2 "2012-04-18T00:07:49Z")
Keep paddlin’ Jim! The search and rescue team will be here soon. Sorry, I don’t have an answer for you but I think you’d last longer with a life jacket. It would at least keep your head above water. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/3 "2012-04-18T00:33:51Z")
If you’ve a flotation device which can keep your head above water, you can survive unconscious for hours, before succumbing to hypothermia (actual survival time depending on water temperature, of course.) Without a flotation devices, drowning will be the cause of death. QtM, who has treated both drowning and hypothermia patients, and who once spent waaaaay too long in Lake Michigan without a life jacket awaiting rescue. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/4 "2012-04-18T14:13:30Z")
IIRC sailors with life vests from the Indianapolis still died of hypothermia (well, and sharks) even though the water was warm - stay in it long enough and even 90 degree water will kill you eventually. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/5 "2012-04-18T14:22:39Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > IIRC sailors with life vests from the Indianapolis still died of hypothermia (well, and sharks) even though the water was warm - stay in it long enough and even 90 degree water will kill you eventually. Eventually? You will suffer very bad burns and die very painfully and quickly. 90 is near boiling. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/6 "2012-04-18T14:25:30Z")
Psst. Fahrenheit. 90 degrees is 8 degrees below average body temperature. ---
**Author:** ![Kamrusepas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@Kamrusepas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamrusepas)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/7 "2012-04-18T14:43:15Z")
I thought this was gonna be about what happens after you die at sea, I mean what animal will eat you first. Would anyone mind answering that while we’re here? Sharks don’t eat dead things, right? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/8 "2012-04-18T14:52:50Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > QtM, who has treated both drowning and hypothermia patients How does one treat a drowning patient, other than transferring them to the morgue? ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/9 "2012-04-18T14:56:25Z")
Not everyone who’s a drowning patient dies, clearly. Just like not everyone who’s suffered from hypothermia has frozen to death, either. Now a drowned patient, that’s probably morgue material. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/10 "2012-04-18T15:10:56Z")
> [@Kamrusepas](#): > > Sharks don’t eat dead things, right? Sharks eat almost everything – they famously have been found with inanimate junk in their stomachs, like barrels of nails. I think it’s highly likely you’d be eaten by sharks – in the open ocean, the likeliest candidate is the [Oceanic Whitetip Shark](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceanic_whitetip_shark#Relation_to_humans). If you sink down to the bottom, [hagfish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagfish#Feeding) and various small scavengers. ---
**Author:** ![destineal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@destineal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/destineal)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/11 "2012-04-18T15:12:49Z")
When treating a drowning patient, I feel that the first course of action should clearly be to get him or her out of the water. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/12 "2012-04-18T15:19:51Z")
> [@destineal](#): > > When treating a drowning patient, I feel that the first course of action should clearly be to get him or her out of the water. First course is to get their head above water, actually. Resuscitation can commence before they’re ashore or in a boat. I’ve only treated ones after they’ve been hauled out of the water and to the ER. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/13 "2012-04-18T17:45:10Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > Not everyone who’s a drowning patient dies, clearly. Not clearly at all. If someone is a drowning victim, they have died. If they haven’t yet died, they are a near-drowning victim. Going by dictionary definitions (which don’t always match common usage) that is the correct terminology. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/14 "2012-04-18T18:51:27Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > How does one treat a drowning patient, other than transferring them to the morgue? People who have been [clinically dead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_death#Hypothermia_during_clinical_death), including drowning victims, have been resuscitated. In fact, if you’re hypothermic, you can be dead for a disturbingly long time (in [this case, an estimated 40 minutes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm)) and still be revived. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/15 "2012-04-18T19:19:15Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > People who have been [clinically dead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_death#Hypothermia_during_clinical_death), including drowning victims, have been resuscitated. In fact, if you’re hypothermic, you can be dead for a disturbingly long time (in [this case, an estimated 40 minutes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm)) and still be revived. Yep. Lots of drowning victims went on to live for many years. Lots of cardiac arrest victims do the same. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/16 "2012-04-18T19:32:39Z")
I’m told that one of the few true medical facts I learned from watching _ER_ is that you’re not dead until you’re _warm and dead_. That, and you can have no symptoms of a food allergy and then _bam!_ be in the ER fighting not to be dead because you’re allergic to shrimp. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/17 "2012-04-18T19:50:45Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > That, and you can have no symptoms of a food allergy and then _bam!_ be in the ER fighting not to be dead because you’re allergic to shrimp. I had a patient die in my office after eating shrimp. I didn’t let him stay dead, though! 😃 (He knew he was allergic, he just really, really loves shrimp.) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/18 "2012-04-18T19:54:07Z")
When I told my allergist about my tiny, barely-worth-mentioning, completely stress-related allergy to peanuts, he said, “Yeah, don’t ever be too far away from Benadryl.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/19 "2012-04-18T20:22:43Z")
I thought drowning was having water in the lungs and not the death resulting from it. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092/20 "2012-04-18T20:25:10Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > First course is to get their head above water, actually. Resuscitation can commence before they’re ashore or in a boat. > > I’ve only treated ones after they’ve been hauled out of the water and to the ER. Ok, serious question time: what, exactly, does one do to treat a drowning victim once they’ve been hauled out and resiscitated? Once they’re breathing again, what further treatment is necessary? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-die-of-hypothermia-at-sea/619092.md?page=2)