After Getting Out

The shortest card in the branch, and the one most often skipped. Getting out of the water isn't the end of the event: in the list of cold-immersion phases, the fourth one begins only after a person has been pulled out.

Three Actions, All From the Protocol

DLRG states them without alternatives: get to shore — get somewhere warm indoors right away — warm up slowly. And as a separate point: seek medical care in any case. Not "if things turn bad," but in any case.

Why Slowly

Here we repeat an instruction without explaining the mechanism behind it, and that's deliberate. The wording belongs to the rescuers, and we don't describe the physiology of rewarming: this is where medicine begins, not a fishing reference.

Why "In Any Case"

Because feeling fine right after being rescued guarantees nothing. In the list of phases of cold immersion, one named separately is circum-rescue collapse — a sharp decline after already being out of the water. That's exactly why an assessment of "seems fine" isn't grounds to skip going anywhere.

What Rewarms Them, by the Book

DLRG's "Ten Ice Rules" put it briefly: the rescued person is warmed with blankets, dry clothes, and warm drinks — slowly. Three things and one adverb. Rubbing the skin, a hot bath, and other hands-on treatment aren't on that list, and we don't add them: what isn't in the source isn't here either.

What Happens to the Gear

Nothing. It's left behind. This is the only case in the entire wiki where the answer to a question about gear is to abandon it: going back to the break for a tackle box or a rod undoes everything that just worked.