Soldier Physiological Monitoring

“Two soldiers were ‘marched to death’ in a gruelling SAS selection exercise on the hottest day of the year. The Territorial Army pair were among six men to collapse with heat exhaustion in the Brecon Beacons mountain range. All six were flown to hospital where two were pronounced dead and a third was fighting for his life.” This excerpt is from an article in the Daily Mail in 2013 that was titled “Soldiers march to death in searing heat”.

It is not uncommon for soldiers to succumb to heat stroke and even death during training exercises especially in extreme weather. Their core temperature spikes, they get dehydrated and eventually they collapse. Whether you are a soldier in training or are in charge of taking care of them you can stop this from happening with the use of physiological monitoring equipment. This is equipment that monitors all the vitals of every soldier so that if he or she is in trouble there are signals that can warn them to stop.

Soldiers do training exercises in the most rigorous conditions – they have to mimic the conditions of a real battle field to ensure that when they get to real action the can cope. Unfortunately most soldiers are not used to the extreme heat that they have to deal with during these exercises. At other times, heat spikes so suddenly that the body doesn’t have time to adjust. A physiological monitoring device can come in very handy at such moments because the soldier will know to stop, rest and lower their body temperature.

Some of the best devices for physiological monitoring for soldiers are designed by Equivital. They are very small so will not put additional weight burdens on whoever is wearing them and they give highly accurate readings. You can find out how to get one on their website, http://www.equivital.co.uk/.