The problems can be avoided by acclimatizing the body to the hot temperatures and the need for sweating, increasing fluid intake and increased cardio-vascular performance. However there is no acclimating "... in chronically ill patients or patients with cardiovascular disease. Patients on medications that cause salt and water depletion or impair physiologic cardiovascular responses are at an increased susceptibility to heat injury."
... According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1979-2002, a total of 4,780 heat-related deaths in the United States were attributable to weather conditions and that, during 1993-2002, the incidence of such deaths was 3-7 times greater in Arizona than in the United States overall. The exact number of persons seeking treatment for heat-related disorders is not recorded but reaches the thousands.
There is a PDF file for download from the American Academy of Family Physicians on Managing Heatstroke.
The level of mortality in those who suffer heatstroke, as did my wife, is said to be from 10 to 70 percent. Waiting two hours or more for medical treatment results in the most deaths.
Back to learning CPR: I was there and it came back to me so she was treated instantly and her breathing restored quickly. That was luck. I then neglected the important treatments that should have been started long before she reached the point of heatstroke. The reason: I did not recognize the clear signs of heat exhaustion and, after CPR, did not know to re-hydrate her and cool her body immediately. The local Mexican doctor prescribed re-hydration and, if he had been American, would have prescribed removal to an air-conditioned area, and keeping her body wet to help evaporative cooling. In many cases the problem is totally preventable: don't win the 28K marathon on the hottest day of summer, give the kids drinks, and force a time-out once in a while in the shade or the pool, make sure the sick and elderly are spending time in AC and not locked in hot apartments with the fear of crime in American cities.
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