It’s arrived, the summer’s triple digit heat.
Last year, the first 100 degree temperature came on June 27th, this year it is predicted to come earlier, on June 24th.
Charlie Hood remembers two occasions where the heat gave him a heat stroke. The first time he was only 12-years-old at Boy Scout camp.
“I got a real bad sun burn got dehydrated didn't drink enough water, and woke up in the middle of the night, sweats, cold chills, throwing up the whole nine yards,” said Hood.
He was sick for about six weeks after that. Then last year he was training for the Chicago marathon in November. In August he was running a 15-mile course and collapsed.
“When I got home is when I started having the fever and the chills throwing up, called my doctor, he said stay out of the heat; took me six months to recover."
EMSA’s public information officer Chris Stevens explained how the brain works when the heat raises the body temperature.
“The brain likes two things it like oxygen and it likes sugar, so when your core temp starts getting hot the brain starts protecting itself,” said Stevens.
Last summer two Tulsans died from heat strokes.
“Your core temperature is very important,” said Stevens. “You can actually cook your organs from the inside out.”
When the body reaches 103 degrees and higher the brain tries to hold in the blood to protect itself. In turn, it loses its ability to regulate the rest of the body. The cerebellum controls your coordination, speech and your senses, this is the first to begin failing, according to medical data.
“I was dizzy, light headed, feeling like if you stood up real fast you'd fall over,” said Hood. “I had a little bit of a thought, that I was pretty stupid, I could have really hurt myself.”
Stevens said that common sense like, staying hydrated, wearing light colored clothing and sun screen can keep you out of one of his ambulances.
