Saturday, June 14, 2008

Dehydration

Thursday was a remediation day. We went out and drilled on just about everything we could from the two minute drill (getting dressed into your turnouts with your SCBA on in less than two minutes) to roof ventilation. It got up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Morongo Valley this last shift so these drills were challenging. Part way through I had to stop and strip off all my gear because the heat was getting to me. I sat in the shade and drank over a gallon of water. After about 30 minutes I was ready to go again. Towards the end of the drilling Junior did the same thing, except he didn't drink any where near enough water. That night, we were all sitting in the day room when I looked at Junior. He was pale and sweaty and just generally looked like crap. He said that he felt like crap and that he had a headache. We asked him how much water he had had to drink and it wasn't enough. We ended up starting an IV on him and giving him a liter of Normal Saline. He perked up right away after the treatment and his headache went away. Of course, we let him sign out AMA.

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