In today's episode, Dr. Ayers discusses the symptoms and treatment of heat stroke.
The Occupational Safety Leadership Podcast
Episode 157 - Heat Stroke - Symptoms and Treatment
Welcome to the Occupational Safety Leadership Podcast, episode number 157. In today's episode, we're going to wrap up a little three-part series that we've had on heat. We started off with episode 155 with heat cramps, 156 with heat exhaustion and wrapping up the trifecta with 157 heat stroke. Let's go over the symptoms and treatment of heat stroke. Okay, things to look for. I wish I could say you're going to find all these, but there's very end degrees in each. I have only seen folks with heat stroke a couple of times and every time I literally knew there wasn't a doubt, there wasn't a, I wonder what I should do, I wonder if this is good or bad or just, so for me it's really obvious, but let's go through the symptoms. So the first one we have a high body temperature, 103 or higher. So you know, if your everyday body temperature is that, that elevated, your body is doing everything you can to cool itself. The next one, hot, dry, clammy skin, we have a fast and strong pulse, headache, dizziness, confusion, and then finally we have passing out or loss of consciousness. So these are the symptoms that you'll see, a lot of these symptoms you'll also find in heat cramps and in heat exhaustion, just certainly not to this severity out there. What to do, call 911 right away, get help. This is a medical emergency, this is an A, hey, why don't we just kind of take it easy, we'll put our feet up, drink some water, kind of hang out, see how things go. This is a get help right away. Other things that you can do, move the person to a cooler place, help to lower their body temperature, putting on, in an ideal sense, there's a cool bath, but maybe you only have some cloth, maybe you can only help to pour some water onto a rag, help and then help apply it to a person and one of the big things is they say do not give the person anything to drink. So many times in this state, the person that's got that nausea, the throwing up and all the other effects happening to you so they do not want you to give this person anything to drink them. So that is it for today's episode, short and sweet, all I can say on heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke is sit down, do the, figure out the signs and symptoms and get help. Obviously with heat stroke, this is something that you just called 911 right from the get go, don't even try and wait an hour and see if things are better. And just be smart about the work that we're doing, I understand that in some of the work cultures out there, it's very cool and macho to not take a break, but when heat is a factor, you probably need to be really smart about work, rest, hydrate, all that good stuff. Episode 157, heat stroke is complete, I want to thank everybody for joining me today. My name is Dr. David Ayers, thank you and have a safe day.
In today’s episode, Dr. Ayers discusses the symptoms and treatment of heat stroke.