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Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stroke

ALiberalModerate

ALiberalModerate

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Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out in the grass suffering from heat stroke. Another guy came along and we carried her to the shade. He went for water and I called 911. She wasn't sweating, her skin was hot, she was in and out of consciousness, and when she was conscious she was delirious and slurring her speech. Evidently she had ran a couple of miles and just collapsed in the heat (we are in the middle of a heat wave with very high humidity). We told her we had called an ambulance and she tried to get us to help her get home instead because she said she was uninsured. We would not let her leave as it was obvious she would die if she did not go to a hospital. She couldn't anyway because she could not stand without us having to catch her. Just the same, at times when she was somewhat conscious she would attempt to stand up saying she could not afford to go to the hospital. I was literally begging her to not worry about it and just wait for the paramedics. Luckily the ambulance arrived after a few more minutes. All I will say is this. The whole country should be absolutely ashamed of itself that someone delirious with heat stroke is worried about going to the hospital because they are uninsured and thus will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt because of it. In no other modern industrialized nation would this be a consideration. No one in Australia or Germany or Japan or France or Canada, or anyone in any of our modern peer nations worries about going to the hospital when they are about to die because they don't have insurance. I see these posts from some of my Facebook friends in my feed about us being a "Christian nation". We are not a Christian nation as long as we allow this kind of a shameful travesty to go on. We our not even a good nation as long we allow it to go on.

I don't what the answer is. Maybe its single payer, maybe its a very heavily regulated private market, I really don't know what the answer is for us. I do know that what we are doing now with the ACA isn't working, what we did prior to the ACA wasn't working, the alternative to the ACA the Republicans proposed won't work either. All I do know is our current system is not just wrong, its immoral. The citizens of any other modern developed country would literally revolt against their government if their government even talked about going to an American style healthcare system.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out in the grass suffering from heat stroke. Another guy came along and we carried her to the shade. He went for water and I called 911. She wasn't sweating, her skin was hot, she was in and out of consciousness, and when she was conscious she was delirious and slurring her speech. Evidently she had ran a couple of miles and just collapsed in the heat (we are in the middle of a heat wave with very high humidity). We told her we had called an ambulance and she tried to get us to help her get home instead because she said she was uninsured. We would not let her leave as it was obvious she would die if she did not go to a hospital. She couldn't anyway because she could not stand without us having to catch her. Just the same, at times when she was somewhat conscious she would attempt to stand up saying she could not afford to go to the hospital. I was literally begging her to not worry about it and just wait for the paramedics. Luckily the ambulance arrived after a few more minutes. All I will say is this. The whole country should be absolutely ashamed of itself that someone delirious with heat stroke is worried about going to the hospital because they are uninsured and thus will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt because of it. In no other modern industrialized nation would this be a consideration. No one in Australia or Germany or Japan or France or Canada, or anyone in any of our modern peer nations worries about going to the hospital when they are about to die because they don't have insurance. I see these posts from some of my Facebook friends in my feed about us being a "Christian nation". We are not a Christian nation as long as we allow this kind of a shameful travesty to go on. We our not even a good nation as long we allow it to go on.

I don't what the answer is. Maybe its single payer, maybe its a very heavily regulated private market, I really don't know what the answer is for us. I do know that what we are doing now with the ACA isn't working, what we did prior to the ACA wasn't working, the alternative to the ACA the Republicans proposed won't work either. All I do know is our current system is not just wrong, its immoral. The citizens of any other modern developed country would literally revolt against their government if their government even talked about going to an American style healthcare system.
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God Bless you and the other guy who helped this woman. I have a background with nonconforming radical training and have jogged in extreme heat until passing out. I laid undiscovered for hours. Large carpenter size ants coated my body and woke me up. I ended up on a dextrose IV for about an hour in a hospital ER. The ER charged $300. This happened in mid-August 1986. For a few days I had a constricted stomach and could barely eat or drink. I recovered enough to fly to Jamaica with three friends for a week of fun, long swims and to attend an annual SunSplash festival. Upon my return and another week of triathlon training, it took two days to drive my 1948 Dodge just over 1400 miles from St. Petersburg FL to Cape Cod. On my 30th birthday, September 6th, 22 days after passing out, I completed the 140.6 mile 1986 Cape Cod Ironman Triathlon... in spite of a DQ for not wearing my helmet on the bike leg.

My wife likes the more detailed version of this story. While lying on the ground right before passing out, I remember my last conscious thought "I wish the bugs would come eat me." They did... and it saved my life! When I awoke and could connect the dots on what happened, I immediately stripped naked and sought help.

As for affordable quality healthcare, I have it today. I support our federal government mandating affordable quality healthcare as a basic right in our society.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
The whole country should be absolutely ashamed of itself that someone delirious with heat stroke is worried about going to the hospital because they are uninsured and thus will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt because of it.
Click to expand...
Well....

I don't think this is a good example. The woman was not carefully considering the options or deliberately weighing her choices -- she was suffering from heat exhaustion, and probably delirious. I'm sure that people who suffer from heat stroke in France or Japan come up with different excuses for not wanting to go to the hospital.

IMO it's better to look at the real effects of health care systems and reforms. In that respect, the ACA is actually not doing badly at all, despite the screeching of and repeated attacks by conservatives and Republicans. Millions of people are getting coverage; millions are prevented from going bankrupt due to medical costs; job lock is reduced. Americans actually like almost every provision of the ACA. The only thing they don't like is... the mandate.

I.e. Americans want more coverage and better care. They just don't want to pay for it.

Ultimately, single payer or a socialized system would offer a vast improvement. While those systems are not perfect, they are in most ways superior to what the US offers, and most of the screeching over those systems are hysterical and ideological. It spreads out the costs among the entire society; offers universal coverage; lets the government negotiate on prices; better allocates care where it is needed; and prevents the inefficiencies incurred as a result of motivating the medical profession by profit over patients.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out in the grass suffering from heat stroke. Another guy came along and we carried her to the shade. He went for water and I called 911. She wasn't sweating, her skin was hot, she was in and out of consciousness, and when she was conscious she was delirious and slurring her speech. Evidently she had ran a couple of miles and just collapsed in the heat (we are in the middle of a heat wave with very high humidity). We told her we had called an ambulance and she tried to get us to help her get home instead because she said she was uninsured. We would not let her leave as it was obvious she would die if she did not go to a hospital. She couldn't anyway because she could not stand without us having to catch her. Just the same, at times when she was somewhat conscious she would attempt to stand up saying she could not afford to go to the hospital. I was literally begging her to not worry about it and just wait for the paramedics. Luckily the ambulance arrived after a few more minutes. All I will say is this. The whole country should be absolutely ashamed of itself that someone delirious with heat stroke is worried about going to the hospital because they are uninsured and thus will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt because of it. In no other modern industrialized nation would this be a consideration. No one in Australia or Germany or Japan or France or Canada, or anyone in any of our modern peer nations worries about going to the hospital when they are about to die because they don't have insurance. I see these posts from some of my Facebook friends in my feed about us being a "Christian nation". We are not a Christian nation as long as we allow this kind of a shameful travesty to go on. We our not even a good nation as long we allow it to go on.

I don't what the answer is. Maybe its single payer, maybe its a very heavily regulated private market, I really don't know what the answer is for us. I do know that what we are doing now with the ACA isn't working, what we did prior to the ACA wasn't working, the alternative to the ACA the Republicans proposed won't work either. All I do know is our current system is not just wrong, its immoral. The citizens of any other modern developed country would literally revolt against their government if their government even talked about going to an American style healthcare system.
Click to expand...

I spent decades as a runner; I had an old lady step out of her car to tell me "that's not good for you" as I ran in extreme heat with terrible ozone levels. I came home once to ice formed on my eyelashes. 8 miles, at 45-50 minutes a shot every other day for over 2 decades.

I'm obviously not invincible, and now I know it. I REALLY know it.

Thankfully you and others were there for that woman even though our HC system is busy rewarding the wrong things. :peace
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

Washington has failed us.

The Entire elite class has failed us.

We have failed ourselves as well as our kids and the unborn.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

<alt>doxygen said:
I spent decades as a runner; I had an old lady step out of her car to tell me "that's not good for you" as I ran in extreme heat with terrible ozone levels. I came home once to ice formed on my eyelashes. 8 miles, at 45-50 minutes a shot every other day for over 2 decades.

I'm obviously not invincible, and now I know it. I REALLY know it.

Thankfully you and others were there for that woman even though our HC system is busy rewarding the wrong things. :peace
Click to expand...

You maintained a pretty quick pace all those years! Only serious runners knock off 6min miles over that kind of distance. Only once during a 10K did I hit the 5K mark under 20min... and could not quite hold the pace to the end.

In the mid-1980s, my roommate Mike, a former Indiana State Runner, had turned in a 4'16" mile, 31' 10K and 2:32 marathon.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

Visbek said:
Well....

I don't think this is a good example. The woman was not carefully considering the options or deliberately weighing her choices -- she was suffering from heat exhaustion, and probably delirious. I'm sure that people who suffer from heat stroke in France or Japan come up with different excuses for not wanting to go to the hospital.

IMO it's better to look at the real effects of health care systems and reforms. In that respect, the ACA is actually not doing badly at all, despite the screeching of and repeated attacks by conservatives and Republicans. Millions of people are getting coverage; millions are prevented from going bankrupt due to medical costs; job lock is reduced. Americans actually like almost every provision of the ACA. The only thing they don't like is... the mandate.

I.e. Americans want more coverage and better care. They just don't want to pay for it.

Ultimately, single payer or a socialized system would offer a vast improvement. While those systems are not perfect, they are in most ways superior to what the US offers, and most of the screeching over those systems are hysterical and ideological. It spreads out the costs among the entire society; offers universal coverage; lets the government negotiate on prices; better allocates care where it is needed; and prevents the inefficiencies incurred as a result of motivating the medical profession by profit over patients.
Click to expand...

While the ACA has extended coverage to millions, the problem with it is that it is doing little to address the issue of providers charging exorbitant prices. That is the real problem, that is why Medicare is so expensive to taxpayers, its why health insurance premiums have gone up so much.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

Trippy Trekker said:
You maintained a pretty quick pace all those years! Only serious runners knock off 6min miles over that kind of distance. Only once during a 10K did I hit the 5K mark under 20min... and could not quite hold the pace to the end.

In the mid-1980s, my roommate Mike, a former Indiana State Runner, had turned in a 4'16" mile, 31' 10K and 2:32 marathon.
Click to expand...

At age 41, I can still run an 18 minute 5k, and run an average of 40 to 45 miles a week. However, its harder than it used to be for me to maintain a fast pace over long distances like the half and marathon. I prefer trail races for longer distances.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

<alt>doxygen said:
I spent decades as a runner; I had an old lady step out of her car to tell me "that's not good for you" as I ran in extreme heat with terrible ozone levels. I came home once to ice formed on my eyelashes. 8 miles, at 45-50 minutes a shot every other day for over 2 decades.

I'm obviously not invincible, and now I know it. I REALLY know it.

Thankfully you and others were there for that woman even though our HC system is busy rewarding the wrong things. :peace
Click to expand...

Over the years I have ran in everything from below zero temps with -30 wind chills to high 90s with 110 plus heat indexes. The extreme heat and high humidity is the hardest. I can lose 10 pounds of water weight on a 10 mile run when its really hot and humid out.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
At age 41, I can still run an 18 minute 5k, and run an average of 40 to 45 miles a week. However, its harder than it used to be for me to maintain a fast pace over long distances like the half and marathon. I prefer trail races for longer distances.
Click to expand...

Wow! You have posted pics in The Tavern. You maintain a lean and sinewy build. Do you mind if I nickname you the DP Flash?

In the mid 1980s, Sally Edwards, an elite triathlete w/ a PHD, wrote a good book about training for triathlons. She divided participants into four broad categories: Contenders, Strong Finishers, Recreationalists and Survivors. I have never contended. The shorter a race, the better I placed in the field.

In your 5Ks, how do you generally place in your age group?
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

Trippy Trekker said:
Wow! You have posted pics in The Tavern. You maintain a lean and sinewy build. Do you mind if I nickname you the DP Flash?

In the mid 1980s, Sally Edwards, an elite triathlete w/ a PHD, wrote a good book about training for triathlons. She divided participants into four broad categories: Contenders, Strong Finishers, Recreationalists and Survivors. I have never contended. The shorter a race, the better I placed in the field.

In your 5Ks, how do you generally place in your age group?
Click to expand...

Depends, sometimes in the top 3, sometimes just in the top 20. The same is true for half marathons, trail races and so on. Up until the last year I would do duathlons and would generally place pretty high overall. Usually the hotter and more humid it is, the more competitive I can be. The more hilly the race is, the more competitive. Though, on technical trail races I am not a good descender, so I lose time there.

In the past year I have been trying to add more muscle which has slowed me down a little.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
While the ACA has extended coverage to millions, the problem with it is that it is doing little to address the issue of providers charging exorbitant prices. That is the real problem, that is why Medicare is so expensive to taxpayers, its why health insurance premiums have gone up so much.
Click to expand...
Medicare actually does a decent job negotiating and holding down prices. It's expensive because it covers senior citizens, in a nation where many people prefer to extend life -- often at the cost of one's quality of life.

I don't think the ACA is the ultimate solution, it's just the best available option in a nation that refuses to recognize that the profit motive is detrimental to medical care. It could have done a better job holding down costs if Republicans hadn't fought it tooth and nail.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out in the grass suffering from heat stroke. Another guy came along and we carried her to the shade. He went for water and I called 911. She wasn't sweating, her skin was hot, she was in and out of consciousness, and when she was conscious she was delirious and slurring her speech. Evidently she had ran a couple of miles and just collapsed in the heat (we are in the middle of a heat wave with very high humidity). We told her we had called an ambulance and she tried to get us to help her get home instead because she said she was uninsured. We would not let her leave as it was obvious she would die if she did not go to a hospital. She couldn't anyway because she could not stand without us having to catch her. Just the same, at times when she was somewhat conscious she would attempt to stand up saying she could not afford to go to the hospital. I was literally begging her to not worry about it and just wait for the paramedics. Luckily the ambulance arrived after a few more minutes. All I will say is this. The whole country should be absolutely ashamed of itself that someone delirious with heat stroke is worried about going to the hospital because they are uninsured and thus will be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in medical debt because of it. In no other modern industrialized nation would this be a consideration. No one in Australia or Germany or Japan or France or Canada, or anyone in any of our modern peer nations worries about going to the hospital when they are about to die because they don't have insurance. I see these posts from some of my Facebook friends in my feed about us being a "Christian nation". We are not a Christian nation as long as we allow this kind of a shameful travesty to go on. We our not even a good nation as long we allow it to go on.

I don't what the answer is. Maybe its single payer, maybe its a very heavily regulated private market, I really don't know what the answer is for us. I do know that what we are doing now with the ACA isn't working, what we did prior to the ACA wasn't working, the alternative to the ACA the Republicans proposed won't work either. All I do know is our current system is not just wrong, its immoral. The citizens of any other modern developed country would literally revolt against their government if their government even talked about going to an American style healthcare system.
Click to expand...

Did you offer to pay her bill? You say its immoral to not hand out 'free' healthcare, but where is the morality in forcing people to work for, or pay for, others needs. You want free healthcare, propose an amendment to the constution that makes its a right. Its immoral to force your will on the rest of us. You should follow the rules and get 3/4 of the states to agree with you. In the meantime there is nothing stopping YOU from paying her bill or getting a bunch of your friends to pay her bill. THAT would be moral.
 
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Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

Trippy Trekker said:
You maintained a pretty quick pace all those years! Only serious runners knock off 6min miles over that kind of distance. Only once during a 10K did I hit the 5K mark under 20min... and could not quite hold the pace to the end.

In the mid-1980s, my roommate Mike, a former Indiana State Runner, had turned in a 4'16" mile, 31' 10K and 2:32 marathon.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I must admit that extreme cold/hot/humidity, etc. would lower that by 5-7 minutes. One particularly bad day it took me an hour, but I plead allergy issues. :mrgreen:

Thing is, I ran when I went out. Not jogging but running. I could maintain that through a 10K, but I wasn't capable of a whole lot more than that for more than a mile or so. Never did a marathon, either. I didn't ever compete in any race longer than 10K. Ran a couple of half-marathons for fun, but I don't remember my times.

A 10K was like my sweet spot, distance wise. I wasn't really competitive at all until just before I quit, when the age group thing made me place better. The best 1 mile split I ever did was about 5:23, but that was the 1st mile of a 10K. I really never considered myself good enough to attempt training to be really competitive.

I miss being able to run. That runner's high - it's a sweet zone to be in.
 
Re: Out running over lunch today I came across another runner laid out with heat stro

SouthernDemocrat said:
Over the years I have ran in everything from below zero temps with -30 wind chills to high 90s with 110 plus heat indexes. The extreme heat and high humidity is the hardest. I can lose 10 pounds of water weight on a 10 mile run when its really hot and humid out.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. The only things that stopped my from going out were torrential rain, ice, or snow I couldn't maneuver my way around.

Your times are quite good.:thumbs:
 
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