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Harness Hang Syndrome 7-Oct-2011 At 6:20:20 PM udev

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One of my mates put me onto this thread. I recently presented to the Vic Scout Caving Team some research that I did on HHS. Basically it’s not very nice and it will kill you. There are various factors associated with how long you remain conscious for when hanging in a harness, ie free hang no wall to kick off on, factors such as fatigue, hydration level, if you are hypothermic any injuries that you may have etc. Some people can hang to up to 1 hour, others as little as 5 minutes. You are in serious danger once you have passed out. In the presentation there is a bibliography of references and there are some really good papers on professional research on industrial harnesses.

DRSABCD still applies with HHS, if the victim is not breathing you need to get them into a position to commence CPR. The other important thing is that if you have a victim who has passed out on rope they are at risk of renal failure - even though they look fine they need to get to a hospital that has dialysis facilities quickly. The kidneys are very susceptible to oxygen depletion.

Link to my ppt given to VSCT as part of training

http://www.dodgey.com.au/Buchan%20Caving.aspx

and select the harness hang syndrome link

Happy to be contacted on this - note I'm not a medico.