Elmhurst Hospital uses rewarming technology to save hypothermia patient

In January, during some of the most frigid temperatures Chicagoland experienced during the winter of 2014-15, a 19-year-old man was found outdoors in the early morning hours. Emergency responders reported he was unresponsive, but breathing, and rushed him to nearby Elmhurst Hospital where his body temperature measured just 77 degrees (normal is 98.6 degrees). Thomas King, MD, a board certified emergency medicine physician at Elmhurst Hospital, diagnosed the patient with hypothermia due to cold exposure.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cold exposure causes approximately 780 deaths per year in the United States. As the human body’s temperature decreases, its systems and their functions become compromised.

“Things start to shut down at temperatures like these, such as the respiratory and cardiac systems,” says Dr. King. “I knew the severe hypothermia seen in this patient warranted active internal rewarming.”

Dr. King immediately thought to use technology purchased by the hospital a few years earlier, the ZOLL Intravascular Temperature Management System (IVTM). Originally obtained to help cool the body temperature of post-cardiac arrest patients in Elmhurst Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, Dr. King knew the system was also equipped with a warming function.

IVTM provides cooling and warming through a catheter that’s placed in the femoral vein (upper leg) and threaded up to the inferior vena cava (a large vein that carries blood from the lower half of the body into the heart). Balloons in the catheter are filled with temperature-controlled saline fluid. In the case of a hypothermia patient, the saline is gradually warmed, which in turn warms the blood that is flowing past the catheter and through the body. Over a period of 12-24 hours, a patient’s body temperature increases and eventually returns to normal. The speed at which patients are warmed, or cooled, is regulated so body temperature changes occur safely.

“The way the ZOLL functions is similar in theory to dialysis or bypass, but no fluids are removed from the patient’s body and the water used only comes into contact with the catheter itself,” says Dr. King. “Warming a patient this way significantly reduces the risk of complications seen with other methods.”

The ZOLL IVTM can be used for fever management, induced hypothermia (typically after a heart attack to protect the brain), to warm burn and trauma patients, and to maintain a patient’s body temperature during long surgeries.

After a few days in the hospital, Dr. King’s patient was feeling well enough to head home. On his way out, he stopped to thank the quick-thinking team that literally saved his life. This incident occurred during the change of a shift in the emergency room, when the night crew was preparing to head home after 10-12 hours on duty. Instead, they did everything they could to save their patient.

“It was all hands on deck and everyone jumped in and worked very hard,” says Dr. King. “I’m very proud of the compassionate, dedicated staff that stepped up in a true emergency.”

For more information about emergency care at Elmhurst Hospital, visit www.emhc.org/services/emergency-department.