–
Staying warm – Staying alive
DO SURVIVE IN WARFARE
Hypothermia is a major hazard in winter warefare. Warmflake increases the chance of surviving combat injuries.
TRAUMA CARE ON THE BATTELFIELD
Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) is NATO’s methodical approach to treating patients pre-hospitally. Combat related injuries mainly result in bleeding (95%), and the patient must have surgical intervention to survive. The introduction of TCCC has been a success at operations in subtropical regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan. However, the TCCC methodology is not yet fully adapted to arctic or cold weather conditions.
THE HAZARD OF HYPOTHERMIA
The colder the patients are during surgery (hypothermia), the higher the mortality. At a body temperature of 32 °C, the coagulation mechanisms are reduced by 90%, and this makes surgery virtually impossible. Hence, the most important factor in saving lives under cold weather conditions, is to prevent hypothermia from the site of injury to surgical installation.
TECHNOLOGIGAL PREVENTION
Warmflake will develop a set of products that, when put into a system, will enable the armed forces’ first responders and medical personnel to prevent pre-hospital hypothermia.