The human body is not designed to withstand life-threatening temperatures of 118 degrees Fahrenheit, which are predicted in Arizona this weekend on top of weeks of oppressive heat taking over Asia, Europe, and the US.
According to NBC, local doctors shared that patients have already been arriving in Phoenix emergency rooms with organ failure, sunburn, or comas brought on by the intense heat.
Dr Aneesh Narang, an emergency medicine specialist, reports that patients with body temperatures as high as 109°F are “unresponsive” and “cooked” due to disturbances in cooling mechanisms, including the brain’s hypothalamus, which controls temperature, making the heat deadly.
“You’re kind of cooking from the inside, unfortunately,” Narang said. The typical range of a normal body temperature is 97 to 99°F. In contrast, an infection-related fever typically rises above 100.4°F while 104°F or higher is the threshold at which heatstroke occurs.
“We are seeing quite a few heat-related illnesses,” said Dr Amy Axberg, an emergency medicine physician at John C. Lincoln Medical Centre in Phoenix. “My patient yesterday had a temperature of 107°F — that’s a heatstroke, and that’s an emergency.”
Heatstroke and heat exhaustion can cause severe symptoms, including mental changes, coma, and seizures, while high temperatures can cause organ failure and inflammation.
Rapid cooling using a thermometer to monitor body temperature helps save lives during heat illness calls. Axberg shared that she treated a patient in the ER with the help of an ice bath.
Narang suggests doctors must promptly reduce a patient’s temperature to prevent catastrophic effects on organs and recovery. Although the heat has not reached its peak yet, he believes July and August are the toughest months in the area and predicts worsening conditions in the coming months.