- by cnn
- 17 Apr 2024
The 911 call came in about an elderly man who had fallen outside a storage facility in central Phoenix. The fire crew, who are also paramedics, found 80-year-old Noel laid on his back on the concrete ramp under direct sunlight; he was weak, thirsty and very hot.
Noel, an Englishman with diabetes and hypertension, had been moving furniture when his legs gave way. His core temperature was 104F - dangerously hot. (The typical range for a healthy older adult is 97 to 99F.) His blood pressure was also very high at 242/110, and his pulse was racing.
Noel had been lying on the piercing hot concrete ramp for about 45 minutes. A firefighter wrapped an ice cold towel around his neck and inserted IV lines into both arms. It was 3.30pm and the outside temperature hovered above 100F - below the average for the time of year in Phoenix, but several degrees hotter than the previous week when monsoon rains cooled the city.
This was not an isolated incident.
So far this year, 1,215 emergency calls have been designated by dispatch as heat-related - a 34% increase on the same period in 2020, and 18% more than last year. The 911 dispatch data showed 11 heat calls that day but did not include Noel, suggesting the actual numbers could be higher.
Hotspots include areas where the city's growing unsheltered population are concentrated, but calls are spread across the metropolitan area.
Heat can kill, so once the call comes in it's a race against time.
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