(Phoenix) The first heat wave of the season is already bringing unbearable temperatures to the southwestern United States, while firefighters in Phoenix ― the nation’s hottest big city ― are employing new tactics to combat hope to save more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.
Since this season, Phoenix firefighters have been immersing heatstroke victims in ice before taking them to area hospitals. This medical technique, known as cold water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military personnel. It also was recently adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a gold standard protocol, said Fire Capt. John Prato.
Earlier this week, Captain Prato demonstrated the method in front of the emergency department at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, placing ice cubes in a waterproof blue bag around a medical mannequin of a patient. According to him, this technique can significantly lower body temperature in a few minutes.
“Just last week, we were able to bring back a critically ill patient before he walked through the emergency room doors,” Prato said. This is our goal: to improve patients’ chances of survival. »
As part of the treatment of heat stroke, all Phoenix Fire Department emergency vehicles are equipped with ice and human-sized immersion bags. This is one of the measures adopted by the city this year, as temperatures and the number of victims continue to rise. For the first time, Phoenix is also keeping two cooling stations open all night this season.
Emergency responders across much of the region stretching from southeastern California to central Arizona are preparing for what the National Weather Service called “easily the worst” weather. hot” since last September.
Excessive heat alerts were issued Wednesday morning through Friday evening for parts of southern Nevada and Arizona, with maximum temperatures expected to reach 43.3 degrees Celsius in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Abnormally high temperatures are expected to extend northward and reach parts of the Pacific Northwest by the weekend.
Maricopa County officials were stunned earlier this year when final figures showed 645 heat-related deaths in Arizona’s largest county, the majority of them in Phoenix. The most brutal period was a heatwave with 31 consecutive days of temperatures at or above 43.4 degrees Celsius, which claimed more than 400 lives.
“Over the past three years, we have seen a sharp increase in cases of heat-related illnesses,” said Dr. Paul Pugsley, medical director of emergency medicine at Valleywise Health. About 40% of them don’t survive. »
Cooling patients well before they arrive at the emergency room could change the equation.
The technique “is not widely used in non-military hospitals in the United States or in the prehospital setting among fire departments or first responders,” Dr. Pugsley said. Part of the reason, he says, may be that it was long thought that using this technique for all cases of heat stroke by first responders or even hospitals was impractical, if not impossible.
Dr. Pugsley said he is aware of limited use of the technique in some locations in California, including Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto and Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, as well as by the California Fire Department. San Antonio, Texas.
Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix adopted the protocol last summer, said Dr. Aneesh Narang, the associate medical director of emergency medicine.
“This cold water immersion therapy is really the standard of care for treating heat stroke patients,” he said.
