Heat-related deaths jumped to 19 in the first half of the summer, with eight of those coming during the brutal heat wave around the Fourth of July, putting the state on track to record the second-most heat deaths in 15 years, new data shows.
The latest numbers from the Maryland Department of Health’s Weather-Related Illness Dashboard come as the state heads into another stretch of unseasonably hot and unhealthy weather that has health officials urging Marylanders to take precautions to ensure they, and the people around them, are staying healthy.
“The best way to treat illness is to prevent it altogether,” said Dr. Cheyenne Falat, associate medical director of the Adult Emergency Department at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. “It is important that everyone learns to recognize the signs, not just in themselves, but in others, and know how to respond appropriately.”
After spiking to close to 500 each in the last report, heat-related emergency room or urgent care visits fell to a more typical 142 last week while calls for emergency medical services for the heat dropped to 107. But the 1,061 ER visits during the “heat season” so far, and the 1,042 EMS calls are both just under two-thirds of the way to the records highs set in each category last year.
The department updates its Weather-Related Illness Data Dashboard each Wednesday to record emergency room visits, deaths and emergency medical service calls linked to high temperatures. The most recent update includes data through July 11.
Despite the high number of emergency room visits during the heat wave earlier this month, the number of deaths did not spike until this week because of a reporting lag, as cases were still being evaluated by the medical examiner, according to a statement from the department.
“These represent cases where the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the cause of death as heat-related,” the department’s statement read. “There may be cases that are still pending.”
Dr. Neil Roy, a chief medical officer at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center, and Falat both said they noticed an uptick in patients in their emergency rooms, especially during the heat wave. However, they said this is typical as temperatures rise each summer.
Roy recommends that when people start feeling lightheaded, dizzy or like they’re going to faint, they should first “get away from the heat” and rehydrate before making the decision to come to the hospital.
“But, if you’re not feeling back to normal, I would come to the hospital,” he said. “So if you’re feeling persistently dizzy, you’re feeling like you’re going to pass out, if your loved one is behaving strangely or not behaving appropriately, I would come to the hospital.”
Falat said people who are experiencing signs of neurological abnormalities, like confusion or unresponsiveness, should be taken to the hospital immediately. Patients who show up to emergency rooms with heat stroke are placed in cooling baths to get their body temperatures down quickly, she said.
Both Falat and Roy recommend avoiding the heat as much as possible during very high temperatures and drinking lots of water. They also said to avoid drinking alcohol or taking drugs because they can change the body’s ability to respond to heat.
Falat said people who are at extremes of age, like the elderly or young children, may have more difficulty regulating their temperatures, which can make them more susceptible to heat-related illness. She also said those who are physically exerting themselves outside, like athletes, construction workers and emergency responders, can also be at high risks for heat related illness.
Almost three-quarters of heat-related deaths so far this year, 74%, were of people age 65 or older, according to the dashboard. It shows that 41% of people who sought help for heat-related illness were between the ages of 18 and 44, while 29% were older than 65. Another 23% of visits were by people aged 45 to 64, and 7% were below the age of 18.
Despite those statistics, Falat said no one should assume they are not at risk, simply because they are considered to be less susceptible.
“It’s important to know that when temperatures and humidity are this high outside, truly anyone is susceptible,” Falat said. “I don’t want anyone to walk away thinking, ‘I’m not in one of those demographic groups, so I’m OK.’ Anyone is susceptible.”
— This story was updated on Thursday, July 16, to correct Dr. Cheyenne Falat’s position.