People...PLEASE get a clue!!!
NOBODY with hypothermia throws off his clothes!!!
He was throwing off his daughter's skirt, etc., to leave a trail.
Please don't be so ignorant!!!!
Hypothermia is "exposure"--being too cold because it's just plain too cold for the body to endure. Also happens in cold water to shipwreck victims.
And being too cold for too long causes blood vessels to do strange things. One these strange things is to confuse the body with a sensation of being too hot.
If the sufferer can still move, they sometimes take off their clothes.
Now, you can bay at the moon.
Paulat, link to this http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/hypocold.shtml
scroll down until you read the following
c. Moderate Hypothermia - core temperature 95 - 93 degrees F
Dazed consciousness
Loss of fine motor coordination - particularly in hands - can't zip up parka, due to restricted peripheral blood flow
Slurred speech
Violent shivering
Irrational behavior - Paradoxical Undressing - person starts to take off clothing, unaware s/he is cold
"I don't care attitude" - flattened affect
You don't know it all it seems because I just linked you to facts. Now is that twaddle too? ~~Pandora~~
More info for you and link.
Mr. Kim, who was wearing tennis shoes, pants, a sweater and jacket, apparently shed some of his clothes after he left the car. Law enforcement authorities speculated that he had intended to leave a trail, but some medical experts said he might have become disoriented by hypothermia.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/us/07oregon.html?ex=1181106000&en=b80a6ccdd49cac3d&ei=5087&excamp=GGGNjameskim
All the news stories I heard said he was leaving his pants and other clothing behind, I heard no mention of a skirt so you could be rightt but I think he just tried so hard he got confused after being so cold and weak. So there is no need to yell at people. You are wrong on this , people do shed clothing. Prayers for the Kim Family.... Have a great night ~~Pandora~~
You're mistaken. Many accounts of deaths on Everest state that the deceased are found naked, as the late stages of hypothermia will lead to sensations of overheating. That coupled with the effects of altitude result in people tearing their clothing off.
I had never heard of it either, but apparently it does happen.
From here:
Patients who become slightly hypothermic have altered judgment (referred to being "cold stupid" by some laypersons), and they can exhibit bizarre behavior such as paradoxical undressing, in which they remove clothing despite the cold. This behavior may exacerbate heat loss, creating a downward cycle to worsening hypothermia.