Dehydrated, nauseous, sunburned Floridians flood emergency rooms when temperatures rise

[RandySF]

nside the emergency room at her Margate hospital, Dr. Paige Swalley orders intravenous fluids for her third patient who arrived dehydrated and suffering from a heat-related illness.

“As the heat peaks in the afternoon, they start coming in,” said Swalley, an emergency medicine physician at HCA Florida Northwest Hospital.

Last summer, emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses reached an all-time high, and if May is any indication, this year could be worse.

Florida ranked second in the U.S. for 911 calls related to heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and dangerous sunburn for the two weeks ending May 24, according to the federal government’s Heat Related EMS Activation Surveillance Dashboard. Arkansas with its blistering heat took the top spot. Over half the counties in Florida received higher-than-average EMS calls for heat-related emergencies from late April to May.



https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/06/01/overheated-floridians-flood-emergency-rooms-the-state-ranks-second-in-the-nation-for-heat-related-911-calls-in-may/

[niyad]

1. And this is a state that said water and breaks are not necessary for

people who work outdoors?

[duncang]

7. Came here to say the same thing.

Let’s keep water breaks from people working in the sun. Yeah, those people who have to wear heavy duty clothing, a vest, hard hat, and steel toe boots.

I was an industrial electrician. Every so often we would have to wear a flame retardant flash suit, hood, and high voltage gloves. By the time I got out of it even my underwear was soaked. Even in cool weather. It pisses me off when a bunch of entitled office jerks who have no clue come up with stuff like that. Talk to the people who are hazmat techs or firefighters. Hazmat folks get suited up, tape off, and toss a tank on their back. At the chemical plant I worked at we had an internal fire and hazmat department. Those guys would come back completely drained. Just our regular work wear had to be flame resistant and buttoned up. Look at the police wearing bulletproof vests I’m sure they have heat problems also. The idiots have no clue to actual work conditions.

[bedazzled]

2. Have to be out of yr mind to voluntarily go out when it's 97

Realfeel 107. Yet they do it. Pity the poor workers. Especially when they have no protections here.

[captain queeg]

3. I got the worst sunburn of my life in Florida when I was about 17.

Just a dumb kid from Ohio that hadn’t been out in the sun much that year. Spent the day at Clearwater Beach. That evening my aunt wanted to take me around to visit all the relatives. Each place we went I politely fell asleep in whatever chair they guided me to. Going back to Ohio a couple days later my sunburnt skin peeled off in large sheets I’d say I had heat exhaustion at that time though I doubt I’d heard of the idea back then.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

6. my only experiences with humidity.. Florida and Georgia

made me appreciate the "dry heat" of California.

[RandySF]

11. 63 degrees and breezy in San Francisco!

[RandySF]

9. Me too, when I was 8.

[Jim__]

4. At least in Florida they know it can't be related to climate change. Can't be.

Florida outlawed it.

[babylonsister]

8. This governor is such a moron on

so many topics. But he is possibly following the herd of morons who are in abundance.

[Conjuay]

10. Yeah, DumbSantis outlawed it

A few days ago I found out Central Florida was moved out of zone 9B to zone 10A on the plant hardiness map.That translates as a 10 Degree higher predicted low temperature. I believe this has been the first adjustment in 12 years, based on 30 years of data.

[NickB79]

12. Same up north

Minnesota went from USDA zone 4a to zone 5a in the past 30 years. I now have peach trees and pawpaws fruiting in my yard, the kind of thing you'd only find 400 miles south in Missouri 50 yr ago

[Biophilic]

5. A good friend, who volunteers at the local humane society spent two nights in the hospital.

She went into the office with what appeared to be heart attack symptoms. The ambulance drivers agreed and took her to the small local hospital. They eventually found not heart problems and it appeared to be heat related.

[MOMFUDSKI]

13. Pretty much it is not the Floridians that

wind up in emergency rooms. We know how to live here. It is the idiot tourists that go vacay nutty and get fried. I have seen college spring breakers walking down Gulf Blvd. with purple backs! So red that they turn purple.

[Richard D]

14. An important rescouce . . .

. . . giving the heat index, which is a combination of the temperature and the humidity.

https://www.weather.gov/ffc/hichart