It is a hot day in June at a Girl Scout summer camp in Tennessee. Scouts are standing in a horseshoe formation, an open circle facing the flagpole, waiting for the closing flag ceremony to begin. Suddenly, a girl starts walking slowly forward towards the flagpole, head down, like a zombie or someone in a trance.
Everybody freezes, embarrassed for her and uncomfortable with the sight. Then a counselor realizes what is happening —the girl is having a heat stroke and is not conscious of what she is doing — and rushes over to catch the camper before she blacks out.
Not realizing what is happening when someone is suffering a heat stroke is a scary situation for everyone. Recognizing the symptoms of the early stage, called heat exhaustion, can prevent the more serious stage of heat stroke.
Heat exhaustion starts with dizziness, headache and confusion, and are signs to get out of the heat and drink plenty of water. Getting overheated can also trigger nausea, weakness, muscle cramps, an unsteady gait and slurred speech, at which point you should call 911. First aid involves cooling the body down by applying ice packs or cold water to places where blood flows close to the surface of the skin — neck, armpits and lower abdomen.
Heat stroke is defined as the body reaching 104 degrees, and if not reversed, can lead to coma, seizures and death. With high temperatures forecast in the 90s and over 100 through mid-August, cases of heat stroke in central Missouri are as predictable as thunderstorm and tornado warnings. That makes it a concern to staff of the Henry County Health Center.
To provide relief, the Henry County Health Center donated 20 box fans to the Samaritan Center last week. Anyone who uses the Samaritan Center, a food bank and thrift store on South Second, or who needs a fan because of an emergency, is eligible for one, according to Samaritan Center Director Sheila Barkwell.
“I’ll give one to anyone who needs one, ” Sheila said.
Henry County Health Center is also sponsoring a free pool party at the Artesian Park outdoor pool, on Monday, July 24, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The best preventative: don’t do manual labor in the middle of the day if you don’t have to. Get out and do any gardening before 9 a.m. If you must work outside, have someone monitor you to make sure you take regular breaks in the shade and drink plenty of water.
If you live alone, set a timer that goes off every 20 to 30 minutes to remind you to sit down in the shade and take a water break.
The MC Logistics crew digging holes for cable installation on Second Street last Saturday take turns taking a break in the shade of the machinery, the crew boss said, and drink plenty of water. When the temperature exceeds 80 degrees, construction workers have the right to ask for a cool-off break in the shade at any time.
Because overheating shuts down the brain, people do not realize they are having a heat stroke, nor recall the incident afterwards. It’s rare, but in some cases, heat stroke can cause permanent memory loss and brain impairment.
Older people, young children and people who take medicines that affect their fluid or electrolyte levels are particularly susceptible to heat stroke.
If you grew up in mid-(last)-century South, when only wealthy people had central air, you’ll remember seeing houses where people had their front door propped open by a box fan to pull a breeze into the house. A step up from the box fan was a swamp cooler, which uses water evaporation to cool the air, then window air-conditioning units. At bedtime, mothers would turn their children’s pillows over to “the cool side.”
In Clinton, there are places to find “the cool side” during the day. The lobby of Benson Community Center, the Clinton Senior Center and the Henry County Library are good places to get out of the heat. First Presbyterian Church had a cooling center last summer, but it didn’t draw many people, so isn’t on offer this year.
Another ritual at Girl Scout camp was drinking a glass of water before every meal, a good deterrent to heat stroke. The water in rural Tennessee tasted like iron, however, and nobody wanted to drink it, so everyone downed her glass quickly. That backfired once, at a meal early in the session.
Counselors-in-training (CITs) served as table co-hostesses, and the one at our table poured eight glasses of water from the aluminum pitcher and passed them around. We chugged down our glasses of water, then the counselor looked down at the bottom of the pitcher and flinched. Realizing that everyone has already drunk the water, she didn’t say anything at the time, but in the bottom of the pitcher was a big dead spider, surrounded by spider eggs.
Somehow, we survived two weeks of summer camp in the South, with its arachnid-infused drinking water, horrible heat and humidity, plus poisonous snakes, snapping turtles and chiggers.
The camper who almost blacked out at the flag ceremony survived the heat stroke but wouldn’t remember it, unlike the Girl Scouts who will never forget watching her walking like a zombie towards the flag pole that summer day.
