[rescue] Cooling (Long Message, sorry)

[George Adkins]

> > Just a note to the folks out there, gastric distension, nausea and other
> > factors will normally prevent adolecents or adults from drinking enough
> > water to suffer from water intoxication.  The hazard for an average adult
> > is very, very slight indeed.
>
> Not slight enough obviously, given the increasing number of people we
> hear about on the news every summer.....  (not actually dying, but case
> examples that had required medical treatment and which are raised by the
> medical profession as newsworthy stories in order to try to get a
> message across to the general public because the professionals feel the
> problem is getting bad enough to warrant discussion)

However, this number pales in comparison to the number of annual Fatalities 
associated with heatstroke.  

warning people to limit their water intake to avoid Water Intoxication is 
roughly the equivalent of warning people not to wear their seat-belts, lest 
their car explode after a car accident.

Trust me, I've personally treated many more cases of Heatstroke than cases of 
Water Intoxication at the facilities I have worked in.  I went out of 
practice in Feb of 2000 after five years, and I never recall ever actually 
hearing of or seeing record or report of any patient ever admitted for Water 
Intoxication to any of the hospitals I worked in during that time.  I talked 
to four of my past professional colleagues today, and the only one who 
recalls ever actually having contact with someone with this diagnosis said it 
was a psychiatric case in 1996.

George