Minnesota Doctors Call Attention to Frostbite

With temperatures dipping across most of the country, health officials are calling attention to the sometimes hard-to-spot symptoms of frostbite.Como Zoo's polar bears are kicking it in the cold.With the water at 55 degrees, it's like a hot tub and climbing out in a wind chill of 30 below zero is no big deal.Braving the coldest temperatures this season seems to be a Minnesota thing.St. Paul students who didn't get to stay home like some other districts because of the cold seemed to look at it all like a challenge."I thought I almost wanted to just tough it and come in anyway, cause in the spirit of being in Minnesota," said a student.Crews setting up the course for Red Bull's Crashed Ice event later this month also seem to say "game on."Even though they just came from California, they don't slow down when the temperatures go down."Dress warm, layers, work hard, sweat, and then make sure you don't get cold whenever you're sweating," said Dylan Warren, helping build the Crashed Ice course.But doctors say be careful. They strongly advise paying attention to your limbs and fingers. You can't always tell the difference between super cold and dangerously cold."Unfortunately, some people try and push through the painful portion of it and then once they become completely numb and think, 'Oh, I'm okay now so I can stay outside and do whatever I'm doing,' and that is actually the wrong response. It is numb because you no longer have any blood supply. Your nerves aren't working anymore to tell you that you're damaging your tissues," said Dr. William Mohr, with Regions Hospital Burn Center.The good news is neither Regions Hospital nor HCMC report any frostbite patients from this latest arctic blast."We're less busy. I would love to believe that we learned our lesson from last year," said Dr. Mohr.But maybe there are just those Minnesotans that are used to the deep freeze and like it.