International
Heat exhaustion and heatstroke
Use at your own risk. For education and research only. Not medical advice. Check the numbers and rules for the country you are in, because they change. Before you rely on these cards, ask a medical professional or a fire safety specialist to review them. Disclaimer
Do this first
Get the person out of the heat, lay them down, cool them with water and moving air, and give sips of water if they are fully awake.
Heat kills in two stages. Heat exhaustion, with pale skin, sweating, weakness and nausea, still responds to shade, water and rest. Heatstroke, with hot skin and a confused or unconscious brain, is an emergency in which every minute of cooling limits the damage.
Step by step
- Move them to shade or a cool room, lay them down and raise the legs slightly.
- Remove excess clothing and cool the skin. Spray or sponge with water and fan them, and put cold packs wrapped in cloth on the neck, armpits and groin.
- If they are fully awake, give water or a sports drink in steady sips, not litres at once.
- Reassess after thirty minutes. Heat exhaustion should clearly improve. If it does not, treat it as heatstroke and call 112.
- Heatstroke means hot skin with confusion, staggering, seizure or fading consciousness. Call 112 immediately and say heatstroke.
- Cool aggressively while you wait, with the fastest safe method available: immersion in cool water up to the neck for a fit young person, or continuous water plus fanning for everyone else.
- If they become unresponsive but breathe normally, use the recovery position, keep cooling and monitor the breathing.
Never do this
- Never give anything to drink to someone confused or drowsy. It will end up in the lungs.
- Never give fever medicines like paracetamol or ibuprofen for heatstroke. Heatstroke is not a fever, the medicines do not help, and they load the liver and kidneys.
- Never leave anyone, child, adult or animal, in a parked car, and never assume a heatstroke victim can rest it off. Time is running.
Call emergency services if
- Hot skin together with confusion, strange behaviour, staggering, seizure or fainting.
- Symptoms that do not clearly improve within thirty minutes of shade, cooling and fluids.
- Heat illness in a child, an older person, or anyone with heart disease or on regular medication.
Common questions
How do I tell exhaustion from heatstroke?
Look at the brain, not the sweat. Exhausted people feel miserable but make sense. Heatstroke changes the person: confusion, aggression, staggering, collapse. Sweating can still be present in heatstroke, so do not rely on it either way.
How do I avoid it on a hot day?
Drink before you are thirsty, shift work and sport to morning and evening, wear a hat and light clothing, and check on older neighbours daily. Most heat deaths happen to people alone in hot flats, rather than to hikers.
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Sources and standards
Use at your own risk. For education and research only. Not medical advice. Check the numbers and rules for the country you are in, because they change. Before you rely on these cards, ask a medical professional or a fire safety specialist to review them.