The Holistic Care for Heat Exhaustion Patients Associated with Excessive Body Mass Index: A Case Study

Abstract

The world today is being greatly impacted by global climate change and warming. Extremely hot weather usually occurs in Asia during the summer months of April and May and is associated with high humidity. People who may be at risk from these conditions include occupations that require working outdoors, such as military and police occupations that require training in the sun and other occupations such as street sweepers and first responders. For factory workers who must work outdoors, heat exhaustion is a condition that is second only to heat stroke, which can be differentially diagnosed by the neurological symptoms and a core body temperature of more than 40⁰C. However, if the person who provides initial aid does not think about heat exhaustion and does not provide the correct first aid the condition may increase in severity and become heat stroke, which can be life-threatening. Heat exhaustion is caused by a loss of body water and minerals. If the person is unable to cool down quickly this allows the heat to affect the brain and muscular function, leading to heat stroke. This leads to muscle breakdown (rhabdomyolysis) causing acute kidney injury and hyperkalemia. Severe cardiac arrhythmias can cause sudden death. Patients may have symptoms of vomiting, headache, dizziness, gasping for breath, shortness of breath from the various internal organ dysfunctions.