Hypothermia — Printable 18×24 Wall Chart, The Three Stages and What Never to Do

 A field reference for cold injury, built so somebody can read it under pressure.

It opens with the umbles — stumbles, mumbles, fumbles, grumbles — because that is how it actually presents, and because a person who is losing coordination and getting irritable is often the last to know.

Then three stages across the sheet, each with what you see and what you do. Mild: shivering, clumsy hands, still alert and able to help themselves — get them out of the wind, off the ground, out of wet clothing, insulated, fed, and let them shiver. Moderate: the shivering fades and stops, they are confused and slurred and insisting they are fine — handle them very gently, keep them horizontal, heat at chest, neck, armpits and groin, not the limbs, and call for help. Severe: no shivering, rigid, stuporous, pulse hard to find — core heat only, do not let them walk, evacuate.

The single line it is built around: shivering that stops is deterioration, not improvement.

And a NEVER list, because the instincts are wrong here — no alcohol, no rubbing or massaging the limbs, no hot bath or shower, no rough handling, because a cold heart is irritable. Plus the one that matters at the end: nobody is dead until they are warm and dead.

A single sheet, 18 × 24 inches. Print it at any copy shop, office store or online print service — ask for 18 × 24 on matte or satin paper. You get a print-ready PDF and a PNG.

Adapted from public-domain US government field manuals, redrawn and set fresh. Field guidance, not medical advice, and not an official publication or endorsed by any agency. Instant download — print it as many times as you like.