(07/19/19) - Calls for heat fatigue, exhaustion and heat stroke have started to pick up for a mid-Michigan ambulance company.
"When the weather gets like this there's a little more calls for difficulty breathing, some of your patients with chronic medical problems, such as heart problems and breathing problems, they don't do well in the heat and humidity," Chuck McGlinchie said.
Chuck McGlinchie is a 30 year paramedic with Swartz Ambulance.
He says you should start drinking water at the beginning of your day and take more frequent breaks, especially if you're going to be working outside.
"They don't really think it's going to happen to them. So their - in particular people that work outside - they are working away, doing whatever they normally do and they want to try to tough it out to get their job done and all of a sudden it catches up to them," McGlinchie said.
McGlinchie, along with partner Damon Okamoto, respond to calls like that often in the sweltering heat. If you start feeling faint, nauseated or if you're sweating heavily he says it's time to find a place to cool down.
"If you're no longer sweating where your skin becomes dry...you nearly pass out or you do pass out or start having a headache, severe muscle cramps, that's the time where maybe you need to call for some help," McGlinchie said.
As for the paramedics, he says they get just as hot as everyone else while in someone's house, at the scene of a fire or accident. Their management team also meets up with crews to pass out cold drinks as the paramedics make it through their busy day.