Heat stroke

What are the symptoms?

Heat cramps are common with physical exertion. Heat exhaustion usually entails a temperature of 101 to 104, headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and fainting. It is important to recognise and treat heat exhaustion immediately.

How is it treated?

Heat cramps usually respond to gentle stretching and to re-hydration, especially with an electrolyte solution. Heat exhaustion is an emergency. Treatment includes cooling, fans, drinking liquids, and applying ice over the groin and armpits. People typically respond well but prompt treatment is necessary in order to prevent the condition from progressing to heat stroke where treatment may no longer be effective. Heat stroke is very serious. Call the emergency services.

Sunburn

Who gets it?

The lighter the complexion, the greater the risk of radiation burns from the sun. Higher elevation also increases the risk.

What are the symptoms?

In mild sunburn, the skin is red, hot and painful. Usually, the symptoms are noticed six hours or more after the first exposure and peak within 24 hours.

Moderate or severe sunburn often begins the same way, but continues to progress – often peaking in the second 24 hours. Symptoms may include radiation-induced blistering of the skin, nausea, fever, chills, headache, and even heat stroke.

The effects of each episode of this radiation damage, however, are long lasting.

Each sunburn increases the risk of early wrinkles, premature aging, senile skin lesions, and skin cancers.

Burns

In the event of a burn, you must act fast to try and minimise the damage to the patient.

Stop the burning process. The faster the better, within 30 seconds, if possible. Burns can continue to injure tissue for a surprisingly long time. No first aid will be effective until the burning process has stopped.

Smother the “flames” with lots of cool water. Cool the burn under running water for a minimum of 10 minutes. Do not try to remove tar or melted plastic. Do not use ice.

In the case of severe burns, no attempt should be made to remove clothing that is attached to a burn, as this will cause further problems. The priority afterwards is to prevent infection by covering with a bag or cling film until medical assistance can be obtained. Contact emergency services. The safest form of pain relief is paracetamol.

Near drowning

Near-drowning is the term for survival after suffocation caused by submersion in water or another fluid.

The circumstances leading to near-drowning or drowning cannot be reduced to a single scenario involving non-swimmers accidentally entering deep water.

On many occasions, near-drownings are secondary to an event such as a heart attack that causes unconsciousness or a head or spinal injury that prevents a diver from resurfacing.

Near-drownings happen very quickly: within three minutes of submersion most people are unconscious, and within five minutes the brain begins to suffer from lack of oxygen.

The signs and symptoms of near-drowning can differ widely from person to person. Some victims are alert but agitated, while others are comatose.

Treatment begins with removing the victim from the water and performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) which, of course, should be attempted only by people trained in its use.

After CPR has been performed and emergency medical help has arrived on the scene, oxygen is administered to the victim.

The victim is also checked for head, neck, and other injuries, and fluids are given intravenously. Admission to a hospital for at least 24 hours for further observation and treatment is a must for patients who do not appear to recover fully in the emergency department.

Cuts and abrasions

Usually, such injuries are minor, and can be adequately treated at the scene by almost anybody with even a rudimentary knowledge about First Aid. Serious cuts, however, can result in substantial blood loss, shock, temporary or permanent loss of use of a body part or, in extreme cases, even death.

In most cases, a cut or abrasion can be effectively treated by cleaning the wound with clean water and a sterile gauze pad or piece of cloth, then sterilizing the injury with hydrogen peroxide before applying a bandage to prevent dirt or other foreign matter from getting into the cut or abrasion.

In the case of simple abrasions, treatment can be as easy as applying an appropriate quantity of hydrocortisone ointment or cream, then covering to prevent contamination.

If substantial blood loss is occurring, then it is mandatory to stop the bleeding and get the victim to professional medical help as quickly as possible.

* * * Lieutenant Colonel Peter Cordina is the director of the Civil Protection Department. Mr Cordina has seen it all and says that summer is one of the most dangerous seasons if people are not careful. He talks to Michael Carabott about the dangers posed by summer and how best to avoid them.

“As everyone knows, summer is coming up and that brings with it the usual excitement of village feasts, barbeques, days at the beach, diving and sailing. All are staple activities of the Maltese summer, yet if not practised safely, they can lead to injury and even death,” explained Mr Cordina.

He said the CPD, and other organisations such as the St John’s Rescue Corps, the Red Cross and the St John’s Ambulance Brigade always prepare for summer to be ready to offer first aid to anyone who might be injured on the spot.

Asked what type of injuries the CPD comes across, Mr Cordina said: “Usually they are the result of simple carelessness. Broken glass or other sharp items on beaches, especially sandy ones where people enjoy a walk and children play by digging around are major causes of injury.”

He said that other common injuries include heat and sunstroke, excessive sun burn, and dehydration. “Another huge problem is swimmers who find themselves in difficulty,” said Mr Cordina.

However, he pointed out that rescue services cannot be everywhere on the island at a particular given time. “We base ourselves at the most popular areas such as Mellieha Bay and Golden Bay, for example. We are there to carry out a function, but people should not take it for granted that they will always be under our watchful eyes. People should try to be conscious enough not to dump items that can hurt others and they should swim only when conditions are good,” said Mr Cordina.

The sun

The sun, said Mr Cordina, is a beautiful thing. “But it can damage people’s skin, sometimes irreparably and it also can give rise to skin cancer – melanoma in particular. People should always make sure that they avoid sitting directly in the sun when it is at its peak. They should also wear high factor sun protection and keep hydrated at all times so as to avoid sunburn, dehydration and possibly heatstroke,” he said.

Beach Flags

People should also make sure they do not swim when there is a strong current or undertow. “We should also not expect that the CPD will be on hand to save the day. There are some bays, Ghajn Tuffieha in particular, that are very dangerous if there are currents at the time. We have seen people drown there year after year. There is a flag system and if it is dangerous, a colour-coded flag will signal it. People do still take the risk and sometimes people die. People should always check the flags before swimming,” he said.

First Aid

Mr Cordina said: “In summer, well, at all times actually, one should have a basic First Aid kit that includes disinfectant, bandages and above all else clean, fresh water so that help can be given to others or even oneself if that is the situation.”

He continued: “I encourage people, especially youngsters, to enroll in a First Aid course to help themselves and others if in need. St John’s and Red Cross offer such courses at a reasonable fee so people can learn the basic principles and what do in different situations.”

Boats

Mr Cordina said that boat owners should always watch out for swimmer only zones. “Boats should stay out of these areas at all costs. But another important issue is that of having adequate life jacket supplies. We see so many boats around our waters in summer, usually laden with people. There should be enough life jackets for all especially children,” said Mr Cordina.

Mr Cordina stressed that all people aboard should be wearing their lifejackets at all times on the water and not just leave them in a drawer or compartment. “Experience teaches you that you can never predict what can happen while at sea,” he said.

He also made it a point to mention that boat drivers should stick to speed limits. “Drivers should know the limits and not speed. They must also make it a point to watch out for divers’ buoys because they can surface at any time and get injured, or as has happened in the past, worse,” he said.

Diving

But divers also have a responsibility, he said. “They should only dive in places they know well and they should also have someone with them on the surface to make sure that they have help if they are in need of it. Tragedies can happen even if there are others, but it is always a help.”

He said that divers must tell someone, perhaps a family member, where we are going to be and what time they are going to dive and surface. “They should always have well-maintained diving equipment, and most importantly, the relevant buoys that indicate that a diver is underwater,” he said.

Fires

Mr Cordina said that summer sees an increase in the number of bush and scrub fires. “But from watching the patterns, it is clear that there are arsonists who set fire to fields. Sometimes they do go up on their own, but some people do it and enjoy wasting our time,” he said.

He appealed: “These people should realise that the same crew wasting time putting out such a fire could be needed by one of their relatives.”

“Driving in extreme heat is exhausting on the body. Also, there are more cars on the road at night which also gives rise to more accidents. We don’t want any more trauma caused by deaths on our roads, so in summer, drivers should be careful so as not to injure themselves or others,” he said.

BBQs

“Summer is time for BBQs. First and foremost, we should never leave embers on the beach. There are metal tanks that can be used and we should not leave stuff on the beach. Apart from being unsightly, it is dangerous. There are cleaners, but we should not just be careless,” he said.

Mr Cordina said BBQs are part of Maltese cultures – when people have finished, they should dig a hole and bury the embers, but they should not put them in a rubbish bin. “You can also use water to put them out. You can put it out and take it home, but burning embers should never be put in cars. People should also be careful when using flammable liquids to light barbecues,” said Lt Colonel Cordina.

Feasts

Mr Cordina concluded by pointing out that summer season is also our feast season. “Feasts everywhere. We should enjoy them but people do drink far too much. Also, people should leave the fireworks displays to the professionals,” he said.