North Texas

Heat-Related Calls Keep MedStar Crews Busy

North Texas remains under a heat advisory until Sunday evening.

The dangerous heat wave is keeping emergency responders busy.             

While the advice is to stay out of the heat, not everyone can do it.

Crews with Medstar in Fort Worth have been responding to heat-related calls all week.

They activated their severe weather protocol which upgrades calls where the patient is exposed to the heat.

“Any calls that are outside, the patient’s unprotected from the elements, automatically gets bumped up another priority level,” said Medstar Supervisor Marshall Sharp.

Saturday, the heat index reached 108 degrees in Fort Worth.

As of 5 p.m., Medstar responded to six heat-related calls.

Daryl Grant says he’d been walking about 20 minutes on the side of a road when he became dizzy.

“It’s like a furnace and I started spinning and spinning and spinning and first of all I couldn’t hardly breathe,” Grant told NBC 5 as he sat in the back of a Medstar Ambulance.

The ambulance happened to be nearby when he collapsed. Bystanders waved the ambulance over.

“I think I'm blessed to be here because I take medicine too. Thanks to these guys,” Grant said.

Sharp says the homeless and senior citizens are particularly susceptible to the heat.

According to WebMD.com, symptoms of heat exhaustion are nausea, headache and dizziness.

Symptoms of heat stroke include rapid heart rate, decreased sweating and shortness of breath.

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