DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- A heat advisory has gone into effect from 1pm Tuesday until Wednesday evening in North Texas.
This means the heat index is 105 degrees or higher.
Robert Risch Medical Director of the ER at Baylor Scott and White Grapevine tells people to stay indoors as much as possible, hydrate and wear light colored clothing
“If they are outside and noticed they’ve stopped sweating, that’s a really big danger sign…that’s the point where you need to get inside, re-hydrate, stand in front of a fan or have a cool mist,” he said.
He said to keep applying sun block and sit in the shade at least every 20 minutes if you’re going to be outside for an extended amount of time.
Risch said there’s a spectrum of heat related illnesses from heat exhaustion to heat stroke. “Heat Exhaustion you’ll start to feel nauseous and may start vomiting to feeling cold and clammy and with Heat stroke you start to act differently and that’s a life threatening emergency,” he said.
He said if patients feel confused or act different after too much heat exposure, that’s a sign of heat stroke. “If you or someone you know starts feeling this way, you need to go to the hospital immediately… if we don’t get your temperature down it can lead to brain death eventually,” he said.
Medstar has also implemented it’s extreme heat weather response protocol. For patients located outside in an unprotected area, Medstar upgrades the priority of the response to limit the patient and first responders from exposure to extreme heat.
For more information and additional tips to beat the heat click here.
