Heat Stroke Dangers

Health & Beauty
Published on Jan 15, 2020
It’s considered the most serious form of heat injury—Health experts at Lee Memorial Health System say heat stroke can cause serious internal damage, even death.

According to Dr. Gary Goforth, a family medicine physician with Lee Memorial Health System, heat stroke occurs in adults when their body temperature reaches 104 degrees or higher. It can happen in children when their body temperature reaches 105 degrees or higher. “A mild heat stoke is considered an emergency.”

Heat stroke can target anyone but Dr. Goforth says children and the elderly are more susceptible. “People come down from the north and they’re not used to heat. They’re much more susceptible to that, so regulating the time you spend in the sun, making sure you get plenty of fluid, staying in the shade as much as possible.”

Signs of heat stroke are sudden fatigue, high temperature, nausea, and dizziness. If left untreated, the symptoms can get worse causing seizures, vomiting, and muscle break down, even loss of consciousness.

“Their body loses the ability to regulate heat,” said Dr. Goforth. “So, many times they don’t sweat even though their body core temperature is hot, they don’t sweat. Their core temperature gets to dangerously high levels.”

Dr. Goforth says if someone is developing a heat stroke it’s best to get them out of the heat and get them plenty of water. “We even use things like ice packs, putting that on the arm pits and areas to cool them down.”

To prevent heat stroke, he says it’s important to keep plenty of water available when you are outside for long periods of time.

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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