By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
As the hot temperatures, high humidity and the blazing sun shone down Tuesday and Wednesday it was perfect weather at Cabot High School for filming an educational training video for the Arkansas Department of Health on how to prevent and treat heat-related illness.
During this time of year football players are often the first thought of who could become ill from the heat, but Greg Brown, section chief of Emergency Medical Service for the Department of Health said the heat can affect students in band, ROTC or any outdoor activity.
Brown said heat-related illness happens when someone is overcome by heat from an exertive activity when the air temperature is over 85-degrees. The loss of body fluid exceeds what the body can tolerate. When it is not addressed immediately, a person can go into heat stroke. The body temperature can get to 108-degrees. If not treated, the body’s organs start shutting down and a slow process toward death can occur.
Brown said the purpose of the video is for school districts across the state to develop an action plan with their local emergency medical services on how they are going to react to the situation. The video may also be shown nationally.
“The goal is to bring awareness nationwide to the local level, where they can help recognize when a student is leaning towards a crisis,” Brown said.
“(The illness) may not be on the field but in the classroom or at home an hour or two later,” Brown said.
He said in the past, if a student had a heat-related illness, an ambulance was called and the student was rushed to the emergency room. Now the preferred method is to put a student in a big tub of icy water for at least 20 minutes until the body cools down.
The loss of heat is 19 times faster in water than air.
Then they are transported to the hospital if further medical care is needed. The emergency room doesn’t have a way to cool kids down the way they need to be treated.
Cabot athletic trainer Jason Cates said last Tuesday, a seventh grader collapsed due to overheating and was in a tub of icy water to cool down.
Brown stressed the importance of drinking plenty of water during day, being well hydrated before football practice. He said players are weighed before and after practice for 14 days to see how much water they have lost. It takes up to two weeks for the body to become acclimated to the heat.
In making the video, Brown said, “If we can impact the life of one kid, we accomplished what we wanted – to address the preventive illness that is deadly.”
Brown said Cabot was chosen because the athletic trainers and program is an elite group. They have an aggressive protocol on heat illnesses.
Over the two days the film crew recorded footage, interviewed Joey Walters, deputy director of the Arkansas Athletic Association; Rhonda Fincher with the Kendrick Fincher Hydration Foundation, Cabot athletic trainer Jason Cates and emergency medical doctor Timothy Calicott with St. Vincent.
Two heat-related illness situations were simulated. One was of a football player who collapsed on the practice field and the other was a band student who began having problems in class.
The video production was a collaborative effort with the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Arkansas Athletics Association, the Korey Stringer Institute, Lifetouch school photography of Minnesota, the Cabot School District, the Kendrick Fincher Hydration Foundation, MEMS, the Cabot Fire Department and the Arkansas Athletics Trainers Association.
