managing-environmental-emergencies
Managing Environmental Emergencies
Guides comprehensive workup and management for heat stroke, hypothermia, submersion injury, altitude illness, and envenomation using evidence-based protocols and severity classification systems.
Why This Skill Exists
Environmental emergencies are time-critical conditions where mortality correlates directly with treatment delays. Classic heat stroke carries 10-50% mortality depending on time-to-cooling—every 30 minutes of delay above core temperature 40 degrees C increases mortality by 10%. Severe hypothermia (core temp <28 degrees C) with cardiac arrest has documented full neurologic recovery when appropriate rewarming protocols are followed, making premature termination of resuscitation a critical error. Envenomation management requires species-specific antivenom timing that directly determines limb and life outcomes.
These presentations are unfamiliar to many emergency physicians who practice in temperate urban settings. Algorithmic approaches prevent the cognitive errors that arise from low-frequency, high-stakes presentations.