Columbus Public Health reports uptick in heat illness, emergency room visits

Yahoo

25-06-2025

More than 100 people have been affected by heat-related illnesses in Columbus during ongoing heat wave, according to data from Columbus Public Health.
There were 33 emergency medical service runs and emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses on June 22, and 45 each on June 23 and June 24, according to Columbus Public Health spokesperson Kelli Newman. That amounts to 123 heat-related EMS runs and emergency room visits since Columbus was put under a heat advisory on June 22.
Outside of the current heat wave, the largest number of heat-related EMS runs and emergency room visits reported on a single day this summer was 17.
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OhioHealth's Central Ohio hospitals have also seen an uptick in patients coming to the emergency room for heat-related issues, according to OhioHealth spokesperson Katie Logan. Grant Medical Center in downtown Columbus had 15 patients come in for heat-related illness on June 23, while Grady Memorial Hospital in Delaware had four heat exposure cases.
Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, according to the National Weather Service. There have been 21,518 heat-related deaths in the U.S. from 1999 to 2023, according to a study from August 2024. There were 1,069 heat-related deaths in 1999 and 2,325 in 2023, a 117% increase.
Deaths from heat exposure are also generally preventable, according to the CDC.
The best way to prevent heat illness is to simply avoid exposure to extreme heat, according to Nicholas Kman, an emergency physician at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
"If you can avoid extreme heat by staying inside or finding a cooling center then you should do that," he said.
Kman worries the most about people who have to be outdoors like mail carriers, garbage carriers, construction workers and utility workers and people who are indoors but can't avoid the heat, like machine shop workers in un-airconditioned shops.
If you have to brave the heat, he recommends wearing loose-fitting, non-cotton clothing, staying in the shade or another cool area as much as possible, wetting your skin and drinking plenty of fluids even if you don't feel thirsty.
"It's good to drink water, but maybe every other drink if you could drink something or mix in something like Gatorade or Pedialyte or something with like an electrolyte packet. That helps keep your electrolytes normalized because you'll be losing a lot of those in sweat and in just body losses naturally," he said.
To prevent heat illnesses in others, check in with your elderly family members, friends and neighbors and make sure you don't leave a pet or child in a hot car.
You've probably heard of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Here's what you need to know about these illnesses, according to Kman:
Heat exhaustion: Elevated body temperatures can cause heat exhaustion, which happens when the body can't cool itself down through sweating. Common symptoms for heat exhaustion include headache, nausea, dizziness, weakness, fatigue, extreme thirst, heavy sweating and decreased urine output.
Heat stroke: Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke (also known as sunstroke), which can cause permanent bodily damage or death if not addressed quickly. Signs of heat stroke that mean you should seek urgent medical attention include confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech, unresponsiveness, profuse sweating or seizures.
For the less-severe heat exhaustion, you can help treat an ill person by moving them out of the heat and into a cool environment. You could also wet their skin, soak their clothes in cool water and circulate the air around them with tepid water in front of a fan.
Most of the time, people don't walk into the emergency room knowing they have heat stroke, Kman said.
"Usually, it's an elderly person with altered mental status or confusion. And we check their temperature and it might be elevated, they may have signs of heat stroke. Or somebody might come in after fainting in the heat. They're in line at the zoo or Zoombezi Bay and they faint. That's a sign of what we call heat syncope."
"Dehydration, decreased urine output, sunburn, these are reasons people go to the ER and they're all kind of heat related. It might be nausea, vomiting, and dizziness. It might be weakness or fatigue," he said.
Breaking and Trending News Reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at [e-mail] and at @NathanRHart on X and at nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus heatwave: Columbus Public Health reports uptick in heat illnesses