http://www.wsj.com/articles/to-treat-extreme-heat-ice-packed-body-bags-and-wet-gowns-7c35c5c9 [click thru for fascinating graphics showing exactly what these extreme temperatures do to human bodies]

Extreme Heat Sends Nauseated, Comatose Patients to Hospitals Around U.S.

Ice, water and fans among the remedies for symptoms caused by high body temperatures

Placing sick people in body bags packed with ice can be used to lower their temperatures quickly. DR. ALEXEI WAGNER

By Melanie EvansFollow

July 18, 2023 5:30 am ET

This summer’s extreme heat is sending waves of nauseated, dizzy and sometimes comatose patients to hospitals.

Among the treatments: placing the heat sick in body bags packed with ice to rapidly lower their temperatures.

At Memorial Hermann’s flagship hospital in Houston, doctors using the body-bag treatment called in cafeteria workers to deliver five-gallon buckets of ice, said emergency physician Dr. Samuel Prater. 

00:50 / 01:20Millions of people were under air-quality alerts Monday as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted into the U.S. again, and several states were under an excessive heat warning. Photo: Amr Alfiky/Reuters

“I wish this would stop,” said Dr. Frank LoVecchio, a physician at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, which deploys the ice-packed body bags as an emergency treatment for patients who overheat so much they arrive comatose.

Temperatures around Valleywise have hit at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit daily for more than two weeks.

People suffering from the extreme heat can arrive at hospitals with symptoms such as cramps, nausea and fatigue. Body temperatures of about 104 degrees or higher can also lead to a potentially fatal condition known as heat stroke, which can cause hallucinations and organ damage or failure. 

Heat-related deaths have climbed each of the past three years, reaching 1,708 in 2022, the most recent provisional figures from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.  [click thru URL above for remainder of article]

Write to Melanie Evans at melanie.evans@wsj.com