Seriously don't comprehend how people live in the Valley,
it's just too much even without this level of extreme...
Even here in central AZ on our hotter recent days with
the 105s-110s, the front doorknob, on the inside side of
the door, is hot enough to startle you when you grab
it...with AC running...
****
It is so hot in Maricopa County, Arizona, that people are
being brought into the emergency room with significant,
sometimes life-threatening burns. For the past three or
four weeks of this record heatwave, people have been
burned just by falling on the ground.
"Summers are our busy season, so we anticipate that this
sort of thing is going to happen. But this is really
unusual — the number of patients that we're seeing and
the severity of injuries — the acuity of injuries is much
higher," said Dr. Kevin Foster, director of burn services
at the Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health. "The
numbers are higher and the seriousness of injuries are
higher, and we don't have a good explanation for it."
Every single one of the 45 beds in the burn center is
full, he said, and one-third of patients are people who
fell and burned themselves on the ground. There are also
burn patients in the ICU, and about half of those
patients are people burned after falls.
"It has definitely taken its toll," Foster said.
The area has been hotter than usual, even for Arizona,
and that, experts said, means that the ground can be
dangerous for anyone whose bare skin comes into contact
with it.
Asphalt is dark and dense. While concrete is lighter and
reflects some sunlight, when the sun shines on asphalt,
its dark color causes it to absorb light and it heats up.
Since it is a dense material, it also holds the heat even
after the sun has been shining on it.
On a hot day, asphalt can easily be 40 to 60 degrees
hotter than the air, some studies show. Last Thursday,
the air temperature reached 119 degrees Fahrenheit.
Phoenix had six consecutive days at or above 115 degrees
by Saturday; the streak ended Sunday, with high
temperatures reaching only 114 degrees.
"The temperature of asphalt and pavement and concrete and
sidewalks in Arizona on a warm sunny day or summer
afternoon is 180 degrees sometimes. I mean, it's just a
little below boiling, so it's really something," Foster
said.
It can take only a "fraction of a second" to get a
"pretty deep burn," he said. For people who have been on
the pavement for 10 to 20 minutes, "the skin is
completely destroyed" and the damage often goes down
deep, meaning it is a third-degree burn.
Foster sees burns like that after people survive a house
fire. "These are really serious injuries," he said.
Patients with third-degree burns will require multiple
surgeries and have to spend weeks or even months in the
hospital and have years of reconstructive surgery and
therapy. "It is a really substantial injury," Foster
said.
'This is crazy that this is happening'
Around the United States on Monday, more than 35 million
people are under heat alerts scattered across the western
US, Plains and in South Florida. More than 5,000 heat
records have been broken or tied in the US over the last
30 days, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
Despite the extreme heat, most places aren't seeing burn
injuries right now. ER doctors say the most common heat-
related illnesses they see are heat exhaustion and
heatstroke.
Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, an emergency room doctor who has
been working in an ER in Colorado this summer and is
managing heat-related illnesses due to a heat wave there,
said she hasn't seen any burn injuries so far, but she
knows they happen.
"There was some reports of that in the Pacific Northwest
during the massive heat wave there a few years ago.
Paramedics were getting burns all over their knees,
because they were intubating unconscious victims on the
concrete. So we've seen this before," said Sorensen, who
is the director of the Global Consortium on Climate and
Health Education at Columbia University. "But I mean,
this is crazy that this is happening,"
Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor at
Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix, said he has
treated a number of people for burns this heat wave.
"Depending on where they are, if they have a knee on the
asphalt and it is in the open sun, then it takes just
minutes and unfortunately we're seeing that quite often,"
LoVecchio said
LoVecchio said he treated an elderly patient who fell out
of her wheelchair. Almost instantly, he said, she got
burns all over her legs. A number of the people coming in
with burns are unhoused and have gotten burned sleeping
or resting on the pavement. He has also cared for
patients who were outside working in the heat. Some have
gotten exhausted or dehydrated, passed out and wound up
with burns from being on the ground. He said one man he
treated got exhausted, possibly doing yardwork, and fell
over onto the concrete and had burns in so many places he
will require skin grafts over several parts of his body.
While anyone can fall, people who tend to fall and get
burned more often are elderly people with medical
problems that make them unsteady, Foster said, or people
who are using substances and pass out.
"It only takes a few seconds for you to get a third-
degree burn," LoVecchio said.
Pets face injuries, too
Animals can also get burned walking on hot concrete or
asphalt, said Dr. Rena Carlson, president of the American
Veterinary Medical Association.
"Prevention is the key," Carlson said. Keep cats inside,
and when you do have to walk a dog, take them out early
in the morning or late at night.
"Early in the morning is really the best, because in the
evening, you are walking on pavement and concrete that
has been sitting out in the hot sun all day really
heating up," Carlson said.
Carlson said while dogs do need to get out to relieve
themselves during the heat of the day, make sure they
stay on the grass as much as possible. Even sandy areas
and dirt can soak up the heat of the sun and burn their
paws. Dog booties can help provide some insulation and
protection for the pads on their paws, but they also can
disguise the hurt, she said, and it is possible that when
they are trotting around in them, they may not realize
how hot it is.
"Oftentimes, once you get them home, they then don't want
to stand up or they are licking their paws and the skin
on the bottom of their paws starts to slough off,"
Carlson said.
Staying in the air conditioning is best for dogs during
heat waves, Carlson said. If they do have to stay inside,
give them toys and puzzles and things to keep their
brains and bodies occupied, she said.
"If you have to get them outside," she added, "Just go
out to do their duty and get back in as quick as
possible."
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