"With temperatures expected to climb into the high...."

Heat Emergencies can be group into three categories:

• Heat Cramps

• Heat Exhaustion

• Heat Stroke

Heat cramps, characterized by muscle spasms, can be induced by profuse sweating and severe exertion in intense heat, sometimes related to salt deficiency, hyperventilation, or overindulgence in alcohol.  Heat cramps can result in significant pain but do not present a threat to life.   Remove the patient to a cool place and encourage fluid replacement (water, and lots of it.) 

Heat Exhaustion is considered a form of "heat illness" that results when the patient is dehydrated.  It is characterized by fatigue, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting, headache, rapid heartbeat and lowered blood pressure.   Immediately remove the patient to a cool place and encourage fluid replacement (water, consider putting a few grains of salt in the water, but do so judicially because too much salt can induce vomiting.) and place cool wet cloths on the back of the patient's neck, on the forehead, and if possible on the patient's back.  The patient should start to feel some relief after a short period of time.

Heat stroke is an immediate life threatening emergency, considered a severe and even fatal heat illness produced by exposure to high temperature, and commonly associated with exertion.  Characterized by elevated body temperature, absence of sweat, hot dry skin, headache, dizziness, confusion or unconsciousness.  Immediately cool the patient, by submersion in tepid water (98 degrees.)  Do not administer anything by mouth while the patient is confused or unconscious.

These three levels of heat illness do not have clear cut lines of definition between them.  They occur as a progression from one stage to another, each stage being more serious than the previous one, and each stage, left untreated, can lead to the next.

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