During the 2017 Adventure Racing World Championships, Team Adventure Medical Kits‘ captain and team medic Kyle Peter helped save a racer’s life using the SOL All Season Blanket. When one team came into the transition area he was at with a racer suffering from severe hypothermia, Kyle jumped into action to treat him until medical help could arrive.
On the Last Leg
It was the final night of the 2017 Adventure Racing World Championships. The sun had just set, and I was sitting at the final transition area just outside Casper, WY. The top 5 teams were coming off of a relatively easy paddle leg in their pack rafts and onto their bikes for a simple ride over Caser Mountain to the finish line. Teams were smelling the barn and moving quickly to finish the race and battle for the top 5 spots.
The athlete was completely unresponsive …
I was cheering on a team from France when I quickly realized one of their 4 teammates was bundled up in the front of a 2 person raft in soaking-wet emergency blankets. Running to their assistance, I found the athlete was completely unresponsive to slaps on his face. Severe hypothermia was in play here, brought on by a combination of 4 days of racing hard, sleepiness, wet conditions, and 55 degree temperatures. My Wilderness First Responder skills kicked in!
We carried his limp body up the boat ramp and put him into the back of a trailer. I knew we need to call for help and get him as warm as possible.
The All Season Blanket really helped save this man’s life.
Folks started to spring into action. Some were boiling water, others called 911, while others ran to get warm supplies. His teammates and I removed his wet clothing, put him in dry clothes, and got him in a “burrito” hypothermia wrap. We had multiple sleeping bags, hot water bottles, and his feet warming on my stomach all to help him regain heat. We used an SOL All Season Blanket that I had with me to reflect back any body heat that started to return. The heat reflectivity and durability of the All Season Blanket really helped save this man’s life, as he slowly began to regain consciousness.
Kyle used a prototype of the All Season Blanket as the outer layer of the burrito wrap to reflect any heat back to the patient.
After 30 minutes, the ambulance arrived and took the patient to the hospital, where he spent the next 2 nights recovering from a near fatal case of hypothermia. I am so thankful that I was prepared with the All Season Blanket and was able to help the racer come back from the hypothermia and recover 100% with no permanent damage.
