VIDEO: Battling The Scorching Hot Temperatures

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Temperatures have been scorching lately and they’re expected to remain that way.

The hot temperatures have been causing a few problems across the Golden Triangle.

Hospitals are seeing several patients suffering from heat strokes or dehydration.

“This past week it’s been abnormally hot,” said Paul White, a paramedic for Oktibbeha County Regional Hospital. “The heat index has been over 100 most days, with a little rainfall and exposure to that kind of heat can send someone into a heat casualty very quickly.”

So far this summer, White said he’s been called out numerous times to pick up someone who’s suffered from too much heat exposure.

“On a weekly basis we probably pick up anywhere from five to ten people just with the dehydration during the week,” he said.

White said all it takes is for the temps to reach 90 degrees or hotter for people to start experiencing heat casualties.

“The major concern we have is for the elderly, and people who become dehydrated easily,” he explained. “Being exposed to that kind of heat, the elderly mainly become dehydrated very.”

White said the number of patients he’s treated so far from heat related-illnesses is typical for Mississippi.

“The first heat casualty diagnosis that we typically see if what we call heat exhaustion,” White described. “A person becomes very sweaty, they will become pale, cool, stuff like that. That’s typically easy to reverse by just drinking water and getting in the cool temperature.”

Heat strokes can be common to see in the summer time.

“That’s usually what everybody associates with any kind of heat injury, but that’s when you become very dry,” said White. “You stop sweating, your skin becomes hot, red, and people most times will have an alter mental status. They’ll become lethargic, that kind of stuff when they get that hot.”

For those who work outdoors or like to hit the track to go walking or running outdoors, White advises to stay hydrated and stay away from drinking fluids that’ll make you become dehydrated such as caffeine or alcohol.