As Excessive heat holds a large part of the countryCities such as Phoenix are an unexpectedly – and remarkably effective – Life serving tools: Bags of Ice.
Is Phoenix No stranger for a fatal effect of high temperatureIn fact, the heat kills more people every year than homoids. Now, the Phoenix Fire Department is taking a low -technology approach that is installing a national example in combating diseases related to heat: cold water immersion.
Fire fighter Colin Kennedy is very familiar with the dangers arising out of all tireless heat.
“So, now, we are going to a 50s woman outside a dollar shop,” Kennedy recently said during a call. “So it is 105, 106 degrees. The pavement is warm.”
When the firefighters found the woman, she was stroking a scorching pavement. If his main temperature had reached 104 degrees or more, the team placed it in a large blue plastic bag and filled it with ice water – a new emergency protocol that was designed to cool the heatstroke victims on the way to the hospital.
“We have a bag and we have ice and we are saving life with it,” said Captain Dave Kirk of Phoenix Fire Department.
Originally Army developedCold water immersion has found its place in urban emergency response as climate change intensifies heat waves across the country. According to Climate Central, Phoenix now experiences 39 more hot summer days than in 1970, and dangerous multi-day heat stripes are becoming increasingly nationwide.
Traditional methods of treating heatstroke – such as placing ice packs on the neck and waist or administering cold IV fluids – are no longer enough. Captain Kirk says that the effectiveness of ice immersion is “night and day.”
This method can cool patients three to five times faster than chronic techniques – a significant difference that can prevent brain damage and organ failure.
In the hottest city in the country, every Phoenix Fire Station now stocks snow – such as a gas station.
Kennedy said, “We have found eight bags within seven pounds, essentially a big waste bag is still, and this bag is going to come out and it is going to come with us on the call.”
The method is already proving to be worth its. Last year, during a testing period, Phoenix fire exhibitors used ice immersion more than 300 times. Despite being one of the hottest summer on records in Phoenix despite 2024, heat -related deaths actually fell. In this summer, they have expanded their efforts by stocking ice in popular trailheads to cool hikers on on-site.
Kennedy said, “We are seeing that people go up to 101 or 100 degrees from 108, 109, 110 core body temperature, even until they reach the hospital.”
At the Valiviz Health Medical Center in Phoenix, Dr. Geoff Compas have been training medical teams on this cold water protocol for many years.
“It is fast. The thermal conductivity of water is much faster than the wind,” COMP reported that when asked that full body immersion is so effective.
He emphasized that cooling patients before reaching ER makes all differences.
“If we are able to reduce the amount of time that the patient is affected by the high temperature, then it is going to be better. By doing this, we are decreasing the mortality… We are saving people’s lives,” he said.
In front of intensifying the heatwave, the strategy of Phoenix’s ice bag is emerging as an important – and surprisingly simple – weapons in the fight against heatstroke.
This story was created in partnership Climate central,
