As temperatures rise, families are making plans for the summer. Many of those plans involve water or a fun day at the pool.
When it comes to water and heat safety, children's bodies deal with it very differently than adults, so paramedics are sharing reminders of steps you at home can take to avoid a 911 call.
"If someone is experiencing heatstroke with children to adults, you should first remove them out of the environment, get them safe and then call 911," says REMSA Health's Paramedic and manager of the Center for Integrated Health and Community Education, Jenny Walters. She also says there are steps caregivers can take to prevent the worst, like always keeping kids supervised if near a body of water. "Children can walk into a body of water and you're you're talking, you're distracted and the second you look over, it's silent. You look over and they're already drowning, so it's not something splashing and loud that we see on on a movie," she says.
Keeping them hydrated with water, fruits, Pedialyte, using life jackets, sun block and being aware of the stages of heat emergencies can save lives.
Medical professionals say heat emergencies come in a spectrum, it starts with heat cramps, then heat exhaustion, leading to heat stroke. They add that heat emergencies don't always happen by the pool, so make sure you always look before you lock your car.
"One of the things people don't know is within 10 minutes the temperature of your car can rise 20 degrees, so if it's 90 degrees, it's 110, that's way too hot for children, for pets, quite frankly, for anybody," says Adam Heinz, REMSA Health Paramedic, manager of the Center for Integrated Health and Community Education.
REMSA Health also offers CPR and first-aid courses you can sign up for:
