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General Climbing Discussion

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The Stuck Leader Scenario 30-Nov-2010 At 1:15:05 PM Estey

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On 30/11/2010 davidn wrote:
>
>Yes it's amazing how quickly toxins build in the body. Crush injuries
>can kill you when the crush is removed because of the flood of toxins and
>resulting renal failure (of all things). I guess a harness hang is a version
>of that... Hmm.
>
>Time to go bouldering.

I'm not medical but I think crush injuries and harness hang syndrome are different conditions. I remember googling this about 6 months back and there seemed to be a lot of inconsistency in the literature. Either that or I couldn't understand it.

From memory harness hang occurs when not enough oxygen reaches the brain as all the blood stays down in the legs. I'm guessing this would kill an unconscious climber relatively quickly (respiratory failure because the brain stops working?).

Crush injury involves involves impairment of circulation/lympahatic systems. When the load is released toxins flood the body. I'm guessing this does bad things to a number of the body's systems (cardiac, renal etc).

An immobile casualty hanging in a harness is at risk of both. In either case getting the weight of their harness would be the number 1 priority.

Could be totally wrong on all of the above. Any paramedics or emergency doctors out there want to set me straight?