LAFAYETTE, La. ( KLFY )– According to the Louisiana Department of Health’s heat illness dashboard there were six heat-related illnesses in the state. In Acadiana, there were over 200 emergency department visits for heat-related illnesses. Aaron Webb, a physician assistant with Acadian Ambulance shared what they are seeing firsthand and offered tips to prevent heat-related illnesses.
“It’s common already in the summer for people to be working outside, whether that’s just exercising or just occupations that are in the heat, that people tend to get overheated, get dehydrated, and not keep up with replacing what they’re sweating out,” Webb said.
There are several types of heat-related illnesses to be aware of such as heat exhaustion, cramps and stroke.
“One of the most benign of the heat-related illnesses, but is usually muscle cramps, oftentimes in the legs. You see muscle cramps in the abdomen area, people feeling hot and a lot of sweat associated with that,” Webb said. “One of the more severe is heat exhaustion. People with some of the same cramping symptoms also get very weak and fatigued. People will have headaches sometimes, a lot of nausea and vomiting whenever they get to the heat exhaustion point. That’s when we start to see really elevated temperatures. Sometimes temperatures are as high as 104 degrees.”
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“Patients oftentimes will need really active cooling where we actually start to put water and ice packs on them and start IVs and replace a lot of the fluid that they’re losing with I.V. fluids,” Webb added.
He told News 10 that some of those patients can replace oral hydration with electrolyte drinks. However, if they are having problems with nausea, or vomiting, then they’ll need IV fluids. Webb said, one of the most serious and life-threatening is heat stroke.
“That’s where someone’s temperature is actually 104 or even higher. Then we start to see mental status problems so that high-temperature changes in their mental status are usually what equals a heat stroke and that’s treated much more aggressively as far as the cooling,” Webb said.
Webb said they have responded to 150 types of heat-related illnesses since the beginning of June.
“There could be plenty of others where it’s still heat-related that’s influencing the patient’s condition, although it may not be pointed to as the actual cause of it,” he said. “Anytime you start sweating, you need to be aware that you’re potentially going to be behind on replacing what you’re losing. Never wait till you’re thirsty, because if you’re waiting till you’re thirsty, then you’re already behind.”
He credits dispatchers as they are trained to give instructions on what to do if they suspect a person has a heat-related cause.
“Have the patient remove heavy clothes, even shoes, to start cooling their body off, putting in front of a fan, starting to give them some cold fluids to try and start to reduce their body temperature and get them feeling a little bit better even before we get there,” Webb said.
Heath Morton, KLFY chief meteorologist, said it is not uncommon to have heat advisories and extreme heat warnings this time of year. However, there is good news.
“It looks as though we’re going to see some cooler weather come in as we go in early next week, as rain chances come up in the high pressure that has been bringing us the heat, it’s going to weaken, and kind of slide off to the east. So we should be back to more normal conditions as we head into early next week,” Morton said.
Therefore, if you’re going to be working outside, take plenty of breaks. Webb suggested every 15 to 20 minutes in a cool environment. Drink cold fluids with electrolytes.
“It really needs to be electrolytes if you’re losing that volume from sweat. Sweat has a lot of salt in it. If you just replace what you’re losing in your sweat with water only and it doesn’t have electrolytes in it, you can actually have some dangerously low sodium levels in your blood that can cause even further illness,” he said.
If you feel like you’re getting lightheaded or anything, definitely go inside and try to cool off. Try to wear light-colored clothes. Morton said the best time to do any kind of yard work outside is early morning or late afternoon into the evening hours.
“You have to be hydrated before you start working in those environments, because if you’re already somewhat dehydrated because you weren’t drinking enough, maybe you had some caffeine or some alcohol, maybe you take a diuretic, a fluid pill. These are things that can predispose somebody to being dehydrated already and then you go and put yourself in that environment where you’re sweating a liter to two liters per hour. You can get very ill very fast,” Webb said.
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