First aid for heat stroke should be provided immediately after the detection of alarming symptoms. Otherwise, the condition of the victim will quickly deteriorate.
In medical terminology, heat stroke is a painful condition caused by a malfunction of the brain. The reasons for this phenomenon are always the same: too long a thermal effect on the patient’s body. Moreover, not always we are talking about a classic sunstroke, which is characterized by a direct effect on the uncovered surface of the head.
Often, traditional heat stroke is due to general overheating of the whole body, which is caused by particularly hot environmental conditions with inappropriate clothing for the circumstances.
Even working out at the gym in a padded tracksuit can lead to a similar outcome.
Typical Symptoms
In order to provide assistance to the victim most effectively, doctors recommend initially making sure that it was heat or sunstroke that took place. Medical care in these two cases is almost identical, so it is enough for others to simply diagnose dangerous signs and prevent the development of particularly serious consequences for the whole organism in time.
From a physiological point of view, such a deviation is explained by the accumulation of more heat than the body is able to control, and then cool down qualitatively. When the thermoregulation system is overloaded, sweating fails.
Also, blood circulation falls under the scope, because at the moment of maximum heating, even small vessels begin to expand significantly. This alignment provokes something like stagnation of blood in the brain. At the chemical level, the processes are caused by the accumulation of free radicals in various tissues.
The pathological effects of an exposure such as heat stroke can be no less significant than frostbite. The saddest scenario involves the destabilization of the functioning of the cardiovascular system, which ultimately leads to a complete cardiac arrest.
First of all, the nervous system suffers from too high a jump in temperature, which has to cope with the double load that has fallen on it. At the same time, at each stage of exposure, outwardly, the symptoms will manifest themselves in different ways.
The easiest way to deal with mild severity, which includes the following standard signs:
- lethargy;
- weakness;
- nausea;
- cardiopalmus;
- rapid breathing;
- dilated pupils.
If you have time to take adequate measures immediately, then you can limit yourself to only a slight malaise, even without vomiting. To prevent further development of symptoms that threaten well-being, it is enough to take the victim to fresh air, to a shade or a cool room.
But immediately sending the patient after overheating to a room where the air is cooled down by the air conditioner to the limit mark is a bad idea. Such sharp temperature fluctuations will only add stress to the body.
The pathological process is much more difficult with moderate severity. Here the order of symptoms is not of particular importance, since each person will have manifestations in different ways, depending on individual characteristics.
Key features include:
- increased headaches, accompanied by nausea and dizziness;
- sharp adynamia;
- feeling of stupor;
- disorientation in space and lack of coordination, which is expressed in a shaky gait;
- periodic fainting;
- nose bleed.
If during this period the patient’s body temperature is measured, then the scale will show the limit of 39-40 degrees. If you do not provide medical assistance at this stage, then irreversible processes can start at the cellular level.
The severe stage of the current comes on suddenly. Outwardly, it is expressed in hyperemic skin of the face, which then acquires a pale cyanotic appearance. Body temperature rises to 41-42 degrees, and the victim develops:
- changes in consciousness up to a coma;
- convulsive syndrome of clonic and tonic nature;
- involuntary acts of urination and defecation;
- hallucinations.
According to expert statistics, mortality in this case is about 25%. If we add to this cases of overheating that occur with burns during a fire, then we get a completely depressing statistic.
Aggravating factors
Children are worst of all in classic heat stroke, as their body is less adapted to the fight for timely cooling of the body in extreme conditions.
At the same time, the conditions conducive to the onset of a critical situation remain the same for babies and adults. Most often it is:
- direct exposure to solar ultraviolet radiation on the uncovered surface of the head;
- high humidity in the environment;
- a number of associated chronic diseases.
In the latter case, we are talking mostly about diseases associated with destabilization of cardiovascular activity. The list is headed by coronary heart disease, heart defects, chronically high blood pressure.
Also, various endocrine disorders and obesity of any degree become aggravating moments.
Doctors emphasize that the most important is the prevention of possible lesions among infants who are not even a year old. Such crumbs are the first to be exposed to an excessive dose of heat.
The elderly are also at risk. They, like newborns, have unstable natural thermoregulation. If in the former it is simply not yet properly established, then its natural degradation is often common among the elderly.
Among the indirect catalysts for deterioration are:
- smoking;
- alcohol abuse;
- nervous tension.
To protect against the negative effects of excessive sun exposure, experts recommend avoiding these conditions. Only such vigilance will prevent the development of sad side effects, including even fever.
First Aid Basics
Having sorted out the points with the typical symptoms of heat stroke, you first need to call an ambulance, and then start helping the victim to the best of your own strength and skills.
The schematic instruction looks like this:
- Transferring the patient to a safer location. It should be a shade, or a cool room with adequate temperature and good access to fresh air.
- Giving a person a horizontal position. It should be laid down, even if the patient claims that he is better, and he is ready to sit.
- Raise the lower limbs. For a good fixation of the legs, you should put a pillow under the ankles, or simply roll up a towel or clothes with a roller.
- Get rid of restrictive clothing. Often this is a shirt that is too tight, a tight belt, a tie or a buttoned collar. If the outerwear turned out to be synthetic, it should be removed altogether.
- Observe the drinking regime. There is a special sequence for it, developed by rescuers for emergencies.
To improve the patient’s well-being, his face is moistened with cold water. It is also useful to soak a piece of cloth in cold water and abruptly apply the cloth to the chest. But it will be most productive to make a cold compress, which will prevent the development of collapse.
The basis for the compress can serve as a bottle of ice water, which is wrapped in a towel and placed under the back of the head. On the forehead, you can apply ice cubes, folded into a bag and wrapped in a cloth.
If there was vomiting, then it is necessary to help the victim to clear the airways from the accumulated vomit. Along with this, it is recommended to fan the victim with frequent sharp movements of any accessible object, such as a book or newspaper.
When the degree of damage turned out to be moderate, then the person should be wrapped with a pre-moistened sheet and periodically sprayed with cold water from a spray bottle. When fainting, you will need to give a sniff of ammonia vapor. To do this, moisten a cotton swab with a solution and bring it to the nose. It is not worth bringing the entire open bottle under the nose, as this will turn out to be too high a concentration of a pungent odor.
You will also have to remember how to provide assistance if it is impossible to feel the pulse or determine the breathing of the victim. Artificial respiration along with indirect heart massage acts as the main assistants for stabilizing vital signs.
After the person comes to his senses, he needs to stay in a supine position until the ambulance arrives. Even if it turns out that the patient does not need hospitalization, it is better for him to spend the next couple of days on a kind of “quarantine”, adhering to bed rest, so that the rehabilitation of the nervous system takes place sooner.
Restriction of motor activity will help stabilize blood circulation and a number of biochemical reactions. Otherwise, the percentage probability of a recurrence of the clinical picture with aggravating symptoms remains.
Preventive measures
In order to prevent a sad outcome, it is worthwhile to correctly follow the preventive decrees drawn up by experienced doctors. Can help:
- head protection with a light-colored headgear that will be well ventilated;
- Sunglasses;
- control of time spent in the sun.
It is best to refuse to be in direct sunlight in open space during the active sun interval, which lasts from 12 to 16 hours of the day.
If we are talking about a beach holiday, then the initial duration of sunbathing should be no more than 20 minutes. The next day, you can slightly increase this interval, but still avoid the “active window”.
Some experts insist that it is better to sunbathe in motion, and not in a stationary horizontal position. It is also worth making sure that there is at least an hour gap between a sunbathing session and a meal.
If we talk simply about the summer period and being on the street, then wearing light, light-colored clothing made from natural fabrics will be the best prevention. This will protect the body from blocking the evaporation of sweat.
In the hot months, too dense meals should be avoided, and preference should be given to light vegetable dishes, fermented milk products.
Drinking balance
When developing a strategy for providing first aid during a diagnosed heat stroke, specialists paid special attention to creating tactics for a correct drinking regimen. It works great as a supportive treatment and prevention at the same time.
Most of the inhabitants are aware that during hot periods it is necessary to maintain the water-electrolyte balance at the proper level. But this does not mean that everything is allowed to drink. The best way to meet the current needs of the body is ordinary drinking water without any impurities. Some doctors insist on the need to drink about a liter of such a liquid for every thousand kilocalories consumed.
But carbonated water, if we are not talking about a therapeutic option prescribed by a doctor, is a bad helper. With artificial saturation of the liquid with gases, the likelihood of shifting the natural acid-base balance of the body increases.
In second place in the schematic rating of assistants to minimize the manifestation of heat stroke, weakly brewed tea is listed. Lemon is added to increase efficiency. But it’s difficult to say exactly which option, black or green, is better for hot weather.
Green tea has a consistently high content of flavanoids, which have a beneficial effect on the overall health of the vascular network. Black tea has a sufficient amount of caffeine, which is designed to tone up.
The top three is closed by natural juices or nectars, which have a minimum amount of sugar, and when consumed, you will have to follow a clear drinking schedule. Drinking natural juice is allowed one hour before meals or after, and the dosage should not exceed more than three standard glasses per day.
Sometimes all of the above can be replaced with milk, the fat content of which does not exceed 3,5%, as well as fermented milk liquid products. We are talking not only about natural kefir, but also homemade yogurt, curdled milk and even fermented baked milk.
At the same time, any soda, whether it is sweet or not, alcoholic beverages, starting with beer and energy drinks, ending with something stronger, is strictly prohibited. If you ignore the instructions mentioned, then you can only seriously damage the heart muscle and blood vessels.
In order for the drinking regimen at the stage of rehabilitation after suffering a heat stroke to bear fruit, you will have to adhere to a simple fluid intake regimen. So, drink the recommended drinks should be at least half an hour before a meal, so as not to knock down normal digestion.
No need to try to pour water into yourself through force. It is worth drinking about 150 ml of liquid at a time, otherwise the kidneys will have to function with a vengeance. When physical activity is also provided for in the sun, then you should drink constantly throughout the entire workout or other activity.
Another common mistake of the townsfolk is the desire to get drunk at a time with ice water. But the idea that cold liquid is better for removing thirst is a myth. The temperature of tea or juice below 20 degrees only contributes to the inhibition of normal digestion with the absorption of nutrients throughout the gastrointestinal tract.
Rescuers, who often have to deal with victims of sunstroke in the summer, advise, as a reliable prevention of dehydration, to start their day with the recommended liquid in any amount, but at the same time, in the next two hours after eating, do not drink at all, or do one or two small throat. Moreover, after a person endures the first dry mouth, he will be able to endure thirst more easily.
At the third or fourth hour, it is allowed to take a glass of cool water in small sips. Before a direct dinner, you can drink another glass. And an hour after dinner, you can drink as much as you like.
According to an identical program, it is worth acting in the afternoon. In such a simple way, it will be possible to protect the body in the face of increased solar activity.