just last week body cam video released
by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office
shows the aftermath of a hot car rescue
deputies say a mother quote simply
forgot about her 8 month old son who was
left alone the baby was rescued thanks
to witnesses and luckily he was ok now
the incident is drawing new attention to
the potentially dangerous risk of
heatstroke and joining us now to talk
about heat stroke prevention is dr.
Kevin Sharon from Florida partment of
health in Orange County thank you so
much for joining us good morning ok so
the big question is what are the signs
to look for when we're talking about
heatstroke well the first thing is heat
stress and that can be as little as you
know feeling a lot of sweating nauseated
tired you know muscle cramps those sorts
of things so when you feel that go
inside cool off chill down get air
conditioning so does it concern you that
a lot of people maybe who are outside
working out in the summer I think that
it's a good thing when they're sweating
a lot and really getting going but that
can be dangerous as you just said well
right if it starts to be accompanied by
these other things now if you're on a
marathon you're gonna you're gonna sweat
right but if you're if you're starting
to feel sick if you're starting to feel
tired if your nauseating you're fatigued
you've got at you better cool down I
know we have some graphics with some
information on it according to kids and
cars org there you can see that
information on the screen 27 children so
far and 2018 have died from hot car
deaths how concerning is that to you as
a medical professional very concerning
because the two groups at greatest risk
are infants or toddlers as well as the
elderly so in terms of the infants or
toddlers we have hashtag look before you
lock that's going to give the public all
sorts of information on how to remind
themselves did they drop the child off
at the daycare and you can you can send
yourself an automatic email you can put
reminders in the backseat for example
you could leave your purse you could
leave your wallet whatever it takes for
you to remember to check that child in
the back seat you can set your phone
alarm these are some of the ways to
remember not to leave the child in the
in the back seat and last about the
florida environmental Public Health
tracking network released numbers of
heat related deaths or heat related
hospital visits now that's also kind of
an interesting number two because we
have here it says orange has the third
highest in the state so what does
hospitalizations been like this summer
so far information on this summer I can
tell you that in 2016 it's true orange
was the third highest in the state and
that would not be surprising because we
have a lot of major hospitals for the
Central Florida area that's probably
where we are today and cancer going back
to school in just a couple of weeks the
countdown is on and of course when kids
go back to school it's still hot out
there what do kids and teachers and
parents need to know as you go back to
school regarding maybe sports practices
and playing outside well we're the state
that created Gatorade right so it's all
about hydration so if you're going to be
outside for any length of time and we're
not just talking about a simple recess
you really want to be well hydrated
children with chronic disease they're at
somewhat more risk as we know anyone
with chronic disease is a greater risk
so we hope that there are health
professionals in the schools that can
help provide guidance but it is all the
preventive things that you want to
inform the teachers in the classrooms of
for children who are out in the heat and
you were talking about look before you
lock you know so many times we hear
about people like the case in Volusia
County the woman saying she just simply
forgot I mean this is something that we
really need to be emphasizing to parents
especially parents may be out of their
routine and forgetting that they're
taking kids to daycare so again that
look before you lock really is key in
all of this you know someday we'd like
to see automated systems like an alarm
and the car that goes off if someone's
left in the backseat those sorts of
things right so the more reminders that
we can have the phone alarms leaving a
personal item that you need before you
get get to work you're going to check on
this before we just we just see so many
of these stories and it always thinks it
can't happen to us and then all of a
sudden to you you hear it again so it's
just one of those things you just need
to have drill into your brain and that
hash type is a great idea thank you so
much for joining us we really appreciate
your service thank you thank you