Treatment:
- Move child to cool place
- Have child drink 16 ounces of fluid containing electrolytes (i.e. sports drinks) for every pound of weight lost
- Remove sweaty clothes
- Place ice behind child's head
- Seek medical attention, if no improvement
Heat Stroke
Overview:
- Life-threatening medical emergency requiring immediate action
- Body's temperature-regulating processes stop functioning
- Left untreated, results in death due to collapse of circulatory system and damage to central nervous system
- Until medical help arrives, key is to immediately lower elevated body temperature ("cool first, transport second")
Symptoms:
- No sweating
- Dry, hot skin
- Swollen tongue
- Visual disturbances
- Rapid pulse
- Unsteady gait
- Fainting
- Low blood pressure
- Vomiting
- Headache
- Loss of consciousness
- Shock
- Excessively high rectal temperature (over 105.8 degrees Farenheit.)
Treatment:
- Call 911
- Remove sweaty clothes
- Ice-water or cold-water immersion. When not feasible, immediate and continual dousing with water (either from a hose or multiple water containers) combined with fanning and continually rotating cold, wet towels on head and neck until immersive cooling can occur.
