Question about a heat stroke victim

caliotter3 · Jul 11, 2007

Immediate cooling measures. Call 911 and transport to ER. You can take VS while you are waiting, but your efforts should be on cooling down the person, starting with the head.

MikeyJ, RN · Jul 11, 2007

I agree -- if you know someone is having a heat stroke, the first measure should be to cool that person off.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2007

what is the first thing you do for a heat stroke victim?
this is a question in a workbook through which i am working. i believe the answer that they give is incorrect.
they say you should keep sponging the person. i think the correct answer is to get their vitals.

you've got to read the stem of these questions very carefully. i'm assuming that you are giving the question almost the same as it came out of the workbook. i would interpret that (i bolded and underlined the specific wording) as them asking for the first nursing intervention you would perform. that would be to take measures to lower the body temperature as rapidly as possible. while taking vital signs is important, it would be part of the assessment process and the assessment process comes before any interventions, the question sounds as if the problem has already been assessed as being heatstroke. this is an acute situation where the patient is in immediate danger of tissue necrosis and organ dysfunction and failure if the body's internal temperature exceeds 107.6 degrees fahrenheit. in addition, the definition of heatstroke presumes that the patient's temperature would have already been taken to have determined that there was heatstroke present since the definition of heat stroke is extreme hyperthermia with thermoregulatory failure. per taber's cyclopedic medical dictionary, 18th edition, published in 1997, page 856, heatstroke is "an acute and dangerous reaction to heat exposure, characterized by high body temperature, usually above 105 degrees f; cessation of sweating; headache; numbness; tingling and confusion prior to sudden delirium or coma; fast pulse; rapid respiratory rate; and usually elevated blood pressure. the basic defect is failure of the heat-regulating mechanisms of the body. . .effective therapy. . .without delay [is] the nude patient should be placed in a bathtub filled with ice-cold water. . .and the patient's temperature must be monitored carefully."

complications of heatstroke are

hypovolemic shock
cardiogenic shock
cardiac arrhythmias
renal failure
dic (disseminated intravascular coagulation)
hepatic failure