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Sun Dec 24 14:53:40 GMT 2006

>From: "oded private" <tangentcarrot at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: "Trauma &amp; Critical Care mailing list" 
><trauma-list at trauma.org>
>To: trauma-list at trauma.org
>Subject: RE: cooling down the heat stroke victim
>Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 14:37:39 +0200
>
>
>BTW
>
>It's amazing how virtullay everybody outside the medical world (such as lay 
>persons) and many inside it (such as EMTS') don't understand that heat 
>stroke is a true medical emergency. I think that holywood, with its reknown 
>scene you see in every third movie of someone lost in desert, starting to 
>get delrious then crashes, later to be "saved" with a few drops of water, 
>has much to do with it.

Anecdote not being the singular of data, I still may make some personal 
observations here -- after all, I have two anecdotes, perhaps that's moving 
toward a retrospective study. :-)

As you suggest, lay recognition of heat injury is a problem. I'm not sure 
how much the effort to rename cerebrovascular insults "brain attacks" to get 
the public to realize the urgency and short window is working, but I like 
the idea.

I suppose it was in the early to mid fifties, around the age of six or so, 
when my family visited an uncle in Houston. Said uncle was obsessed with all 
males being macho, so, when sane Texans (over time, I have learned that is 
not necessarily an oxymoron) stayed inside, at least out of the sun and 
preferably with cooling, I was forced to play in the heat of the day.  My 
grandmother found me semiconscious, and, while not always the sharpest in 
emergencies, had the presence of mind to take my temperature, which was 
about 106 F. That got intervention, although not without 20% loss of 
function of my left auditory nerve.

Many years later, as an adult, I was photographic a summer sports event for 
a large business. When I do that sort of thing, I tend to be competing in 
equipment weightlifting. While I tried to stay hydrated, I began to 
recognize I was in trouble, having stopped sweating and was becoming 
increasingly confused.

That venue did have an aid station with ALS personnel, but I couldn't walk 
there. Well-meaning people took me to a tent and brought me cold drinks, and 
I did have the presence of mind to take out the ice and put it on my head. 
While I never knew my temperature, it was frightening how quickly the ice 
melted and then evaporated.  No matter what I said, and I'm sure that my 
speech was affected -- not that anyone took that as a warning in and of 
itself -- I could not convince anyone to take me to the medical area; they 
simply didn't regard it as serious. By the time I was able to get there 
myself, I was cool and comfortable. In retrospect, I think I was very lucky; 
I hadn't gone into full heatstroke but might well have done so had I not 
recognized I was in trouble and took as aggressive measures as I could.

There is a real lay education problem here. How can public awareness be 
improved?
>
>>From: "Ronald Gross" <Rgross at harthosp.org>
>>Reply-To: "Trauma &amp; Critical Care mailing list" 
>><trauma-list at trauma.org>
>>To: "'Trauma &amp; Critical Care mailing list'" <trauma-list at trauma.org>
>>Subject: RE: cooling down the heat stroke victim
>>Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 19:25:07 -0500
>>
>>"I think it all boils down to what you have on hand."
>>       ;-)
>>Nice pun, Gustavo!
>>
>>Merry Christmas,
>>Ron
>>
>> >>> "Gustavo E. Flores" <gflores911 at gmail.com> 12/23/2006 6:25 PM >>>
>>Oded,
>>
>>I think it all boils down to what you have on hand. At the first aider
>>/
>>first responder level I'd suggest they start with the first thing they
>>have.
>>Being heat stroke a real emergency I wouldn't want laypersons waiting
>>for
>>cold water without doing anything.
>>
>>Gustavo E. Flores Bauer, MSIII EMT-P :.
>>www.EmergencyTeam.Net
>>San Juan, Puerto Rico
>>Iberoamerican University School of Medicine
>>Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
>>
>>Cel: 829-770-0707
>>Fax: 809-686-6988
>>MSN Messenger: gustavoflores911
>>Skype: gflores911
>>E-Mail: gustavo at emergencyteam.net
>>
>>Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger
>>than the brain cells they occupied.
>>
>>      - Arnold H. Glasgow
>>
>>"My karma ran over your dogma".
>>
>>S:.F:.U:.
>>
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>
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cooling down the heat stroke victim