Record #heat. Tough weekend in the #PNW. Seattle=City with #1 lowest AC. For sure - heat-related illness and deaths to happen. what to do? I share a #tweetorial about lessons learned from @FortBenning -when I was CMO of the hospital there.
Please retweet if useful. #medtwitter
In Georgia, our medical team had to tackle issues of heat illnesses - from heat exhaustion, heat strokes and exercise associated hyponatremia (#EAH) - and tragically the deaths too. We re-learned lessons lost from the past and learned new ones.
Lesson 1: Young, healthy, and fit people die in the heat.
There's no age discriminator for heat stroke. Heat that cannot be dissipated will kill anyone eventually. Heat comes from mainly two sources - the environment and the person; especially if exerting oneself.
Lesson 2. You can't drink your way out of a heat stroke
The cure for heat stroke is not drinking more water! If water is really the fix, does drinking hot water make it better? If you are hot, water only helps so much. Has to be cooler than your body to help.
Lesson 3. THERMOREGULATION works.
Your body does a great job of thermoregulation and it works great! You sweat, you slow down and you get thirsty to drink more fluids to allow you to sweat. You are smart enough to get out of the heat and seek shade. Beautiful!
Lesson 4: Thermoregulation Fails sometimes
Your body can only do so much. You wear the wrong clothing, you continue to exert yourself, you don't seek shade. You get dehydrated. you go outside multiple hot days and accumulate heat stress. you are sick.
Lesson 5: Cool FIRST then TRANSPORT
Any concern for heat stroke, COOL first then get them to higher medical attention. If you see someone go down in the heat - assume heat. Don't force hydrate, don't give them food, cool them! How to do this?
Cooling Techniques - full body cold water immersion is the fastest! Then consider cold towels/ ice sheets with rapid turnover. here's a great analogy. which do you think cools faster? Ice cooler or koozie?
Lesson 6: Don't drink more water!
H2O can combat dehydration (which adds to metabolic heat) but dehydration is NOT the main cause of heat stroke. Salts help but too much hypotonic fluids can still cause hyponatremia - Cynthia Lucero died from Gatorade.
latimes.com/archives/la-xp…
Ok, so now what. how do you prevent yourself from being a heat casualty? Here are some tips.
Tip 1. Don't go outside and exert yourself if you don't have to. Don't add to the metabolic stress and heat!
Tip 2. Drink to Thirst only
Remember your body is good at this. listen to your body! If you have to go outside, be smart - drink cool water to THIRST only! This protects performance and limits risk for #hyponatremia. #drinktothirst
Tip 3. If you feel hot, reduce heat load!
Take a cold shower, pour H2O on yourself and start fanning, mist and fan - any way to dissipate the heat. if you have a lake, ocean, pool, jump in it! Whatever you do, don't force hydrate!
For medical professionals:
Any suspected casualty in the heat - COOL first then transport. Don't start giving an IV. IV's don't fix heat stroke either. If you have a rectal thermometer and iSTAT- even better.
Finally-w/ @USUhealthsci, @HPRConline & @FortBenning Heat Center-we developed and published all algorithms to help with #hyponatremia, #heatstroke from point of injury to the hospital. Also this site includes #rhabdomyolysis guidelines! #medtwitter
hprc-online.org/resources-part…
Also, my quick blog post - on HEAT Kills!
robertohmd.wordpress.com/2020/08/16/hea…
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