Record heat has hospitals busy

Hospitals are seeing a surge in patients suffering from heatstroke and heat exhaustion. The record heat was too much for many people, especially those with other medical conditions.

UW Medicine worked carefully to balance the patients between its four hospitals.

On Tuesday morning, they were still seeing heatstroke patients arriving. Summer is already a busy time for area hospitals, so the record-breaking temperatures were sure to be overwhelming.

“That we’re going to be in real trouble, and we are at real trouble at the hospital,” said

Dr. Marie Vrablik, the associate medical director of operations for the Harborview Emergency Department, UW Medicine. “We’re really busy. Heat exhaustion, heatstroke, people with comorbidities, other health conditions, who are already medically tenuous, pushed over the edge by the heat and dehydration.”

While the drop in temperature was a huge relief Tuesday, doctors still say to check on your neighbors and relatives.

At Green Lake in Seattle, it hit 87 degrees on Tuesday. Many people jumped in the lake to cool off or found space in the shade.

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