Reading the tragic events in Oregon reminded me of a book written about a blizzard in the Midwest in the 1880's. It was known as the children's blizzard due to the high number of children who were caught at school during the blizzard and died trying to make it home. It was a real fast-moving monster.

The author described, on many occasions, people who were almost frozen to death, warmed up by a fireplace, given warm drinks, then, after a time, felt pretty good. They would stand up, walk around for a minute or two, then literally drop dead right in front of their rescuers. It had something to do with their circulatory system not yet being over the shock or something like that. The take home message that I learned was not to let them stand up, let the doctors at the hospital do that.

Anyone with medical training care to elaborate? What are the proper procedures for re-warming a severely hypothermic person?