I'm working on a script right now for a project in drama and I think I remembered someone on Hatrack saying they were involved in forensics.
If anyone can, I'd like to know the effects of dehydration. As in, if someone were stranded in the Nevada desert, how long it would take them to die of dehydration and the physical effects (along with what pain they'd feel) over each step of the process.
Anyone who can help, thank you very much.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
This article, prompted by Terri Shiavo's death, offers two conflicting opinions on how a death by dehydration feels... Conflicting Argument Article Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Joldo
If you really want to get a feel for what it would feel like, etc.
read this book! ( Aron Ralston's searing account of his six days trapped in one of the most remote spots in America)
(I would loan it to you if I were closer)
He definately when through all the steps, and talks in detail about everything he was thinking and feeling at the time. (although he was able to save himself in the nick of time)
Farmgirl
[ March 31, 2005, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: Farmgirl ]
Posted by ludosti (Member # 1772) on :
I once got heat stroke (I think it's called) on a journey through the blistering Arizona desert during the middle of the in June, in an unairconditioned vehicle (that also didn't have an insulated engine compartment). Besides feeling really hot, I quit sweating (one of the first signs that you're in trouble - your body doesn't have enough water to make sweat). I got very pale and my skin was hot to the touch. I could not think clearly, was very tired, and became very beligerant. Then, my dad forced some water in me and cooled me off a bit and I returned to normal, so I don't know what would happen after that. Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
Yes, I've had heatstroke when backpacking. Ugh ugh ugh.
Anyways, in my surrealist script, after the central character passes out she begins to have hallucinations (our whole thing is one big acid trip). One of the first hallucinations that appears to her is a very slick, suave cruel guy who says he's the embodiment of her dark side, basically. He proceeds to give her a day by day account of what her death in the desert will be like, with each period of time offering her water and taking it away (with the first, he drinks from a bottle, drops it on the ground before her, and kicks it away when she reaches for it; with the second day, he pours a bottle out on the ground; and so on). Because I have an obsessive-compulsive devotion to accuracy, I wanted to know the steps of dehydration.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)