HikeArizona.COM

6/20/15-
SOURCE - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE DISPATCH - Grand Canyon, Ariz.– "At approximately 3:45 pm on Thursday, June 18, hikers reported to a park ranger near Indian Garden that a member of their party needed help. The park ranger responded down the Bright Angel Trail to a location known as the Devil's Corkscrew. When the ranger arrived, more members of the party said they had attempted resuscitation efforts, but the victim had not had a pulse for about two hours.

The hiker, a 36-year-old male from Japan, was on his way back up the Bright Angel Trail after hiking down to the Colorado River. The temperature on the trail yesterday was in excess of 110 degrees and the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning for Grand Canyon National Park."

Very sad. Too often folks wait until the patient is unconscious or not breathing to consider resuscitation. If someone has symptoms of heat stroke it is imperative to cool their body down immediately by whatever means are available. On this, sources that corroborate are too numerous to mention but one is a little place called the Mayo Clinic. (immersion in water when available, shade, wetting clothing/bandanas - whatever is available, especially near major arteries, remove restrictive clothing). When not treated within moments the mortality rate for exertional heat stroke is about 80%. If not aggressively treated within 2 hours it nears 100%. When seconds count, help is usually minutes or hours away.

I hope that more and more people read HAZ and learn the sometimes life-saving benefits of hiking with an umbrella

Very sad.

Well-said, Kurt.

Just to be fair to the victim and the source, the cause was not determined, though due to temperatures it is assumed to be heat stroke. The victim was not experiencing heat stroke for 2 hours, he was pulse-less for 2 hours, which is radically different. Without details, there is a chance something else was at play here. Having a member of his party reach the ranger station, suggests that the victim may have had something else going on.

Jim_H wrote:Just to be fair to the victim and the source, the cause was not determined, though due to temperatures it is assumed to be heat stroke. The victim was not experiencing heat stroke for 2 hours, he was pulse-less for 2 hours, which is radically different. Without details, there is a chance something else was at play here. Having a member of his party reach the ranger station, suggests that the victim may have had something else going on.

My points about heatstroke still stand - it's good information to have regardless of where someone reads it - it is immaterial whether this patient succumbed to it or not. Being prepared and knowing what to do at the time, even when stressed are paramount.

The 2 hours I mentioned that you want to 'jump' me about was what we learned in WFR - and upon just checking online medical sources, can be corroborated as near fact. The 2 hours untreated reaching near 100% mortality I mentioned was not related to 2 hours of no pulse in the article - it was/is coincidence. Serenity.........

Calm down Kurt, I wasn't jumping on you. For the future, I recommend using a quote around the article or source.

Jim_H wrote: For the future, I recommend using a quote around the article or source.

Many thanks - you are most helpful!!!