LISTEN TO JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH MIKE MARKOVICH, OSF ST FRANCIS HOSPITAL
Health experts say that the extreme cold that we’re experiencing is not only inconvenient, it’s also life-threatening because of frostbite and hypothermia.
Mike Markovich is a registered nurse who treats hypothermia in the O-S-F Saint Francis Hospital Emergency Room in Escanaba. He is also an E-M-S search and rescue volunteer, and tells the Radio Results Network about the symptoms of hypothermia.
“You’re body systems start to fail,” Markovich told RRN News. “At first, you just become less-coordinated. Your speech becomes a little slurred. Then, if you get deeper into hypothermia, you’re going to be stumbling and your coordination will get worse and worse. And then finally, at the severe stage, all of the body just crumbles down to nothing.”
He says you should wear multiple layers of warm clothes if you are going out at all this week, and if you are traveling anywhere in the U-P, have an emergency kit in your vehicle and make sure people know where you are going and when.
