FLAGLER

Spruce Creek High football player hit by heat-related issues as Southeast heat wave continues

Heat index in triple digits

Dinah Voyles Pulver
dpulver@gatehousemedia.com
The National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for North Florida counties until 6 p.m., with a possibility of the heat index - what the heat feels like - rising as high as 110. [Provided by the National Weather Service.]

Hayde Sierra watched her son walk off the football field at Flagler Palm Coast High School Saturday morning and knew immediately something was wrong. Like everyone else on the field for the hour-long scrimmage between the host and Spruce Creek High, Sierra and her son had been downing fluids and trying to stay hydrated under a blazing sun, with heat so thick it felt like "it was hard to breathe."

But for her son, Sabain, a 17-year-old starter for Spruce Creek, weighed down under his uniform and pads, the fluids just hadn't been enough. "He put his head down and he didn't look good."

As he sat down on the ground, Sabain asked his mother to get a trainer, but as Hayde Sierra looked up, the trainer and team doctor were already on their way over. A quick check of the boy's temperature showed 101.6. 

The National Weather Service had issued a heat advisory Saturday morning for Flagler County and the rest of North Florida, urging people to take precautions because the heat index was forecast to rise above 105 degrees.  The heat is expected to break by Wednesday, but Monday was the third day in a row of heat advisories, and the weather service warned the heat index could be as high as 110.

The heat index is what the heat feels like, through a combination of temperatures, humidity and dew point. The higher the dew point climbs, the warmer it feels. Dew point is the temperature the air needs to be cooled to for a relative humidity of 100 percent.

Such intense heat is dangerous for anyone, but especially for those engaging in physical activity outdoors. A 14-year-old football player in Hillsborough County, Hezekiah Walters, died of heat-related issues during a practice in June. Media outlets reported his internal temperature was 102.

READ MORE: Daytona Beach, Florida experiencing more heat waves

Sabain Sierra's experience Saturday morning is an important lesson for anyone who's out in the heat, said Bill Browning, an AdventHealth orthopedic surgeon serving as the team doctor for Spruce Creek through a partnership with Volusia County Schools.

"We knew based on the temperature we could run into some of these issues," Browning said. They were giving the boys fluids and watching them closely, he said. When the game ended, "we thought this was good, we didn't run into any catastrophes. Then we turned around and this player was on the ground struggling."

Browning, trainer Sydney Napier, and others immediately moved Sabain Sierra to the shade, his mother said. "Right way they said they needed to put him in an ice bath to bring his body temperature down."

When there are signs of a pending heat stroke or heat exhaustion, Browning said the most important thing is to cool the person off as soon as possible. It took four of them to load the 6-foot-2 Sabain into a golf cart and then into a cold tub in the school's training room. Then they dumped in a couple of bags of ice.

Even though some parents or coaches might have thought it better to take the boy immediately to the hospital, it's more important to bring the body temperature down immediately, Browning said. With a core temperature (oral temperature plus one degree) of almost 103 degrees, Sabain Sierra was uncomfortably close to the point — 104 degrees — where internal damages can begin to occur, he said. "We dumped a couple of bags of ice in and he started coming back around and we took his temperature and it was trending down."

At that point, Sierra was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at AdventHealth Palm Coast for observation. After a couple of hours for blood work to make sure the boy was OK, the boy's mother said the family was able to head for their home in Deltona.

Sabain Sierra has played football since he was 7 and his brother also played, but Hayde Sierra said she'd never seen anything like this before. The team's coaches and trainers were doing all they could, she said. All during the game the athletes were being handed fluid and given cold, wet towels for their necks. But in the emergency room, she said, the Sierra family was told it's a lot harder to keep the body temperature down in bigger boys.

Even before Saturday, Browning and school officials already had been working to develop a protocol for dealing with extreme heat for all athletes, he said. It includes using a wet bulb to get an accurate temperature reading on the field or court and then "proceeding with extreme caution if the temperature is really elevated." Options could include rescheduling the event or taking extra precautions. "Having a cold tub on the sidelines is the best scenario," he said.

Preparing for the heat is a good option for anyone who's going to be outside, Browning said. "It's not any specific activity. You could be mowing the yard or on the water and can still suffer from heat illness. It's important to understand that it is all about being aware and being prepared. Any injury related to heat is absolutely preventable."

Record highs, intense tropical cyclones and low sea ice marked 2018 weather around the world

Records high temperatures were set around the world in last year, and only one previous year had more of the most intense tropical cylones, according to the annual State of the Climate Report released Monday by the American Meteorological Society.

The report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Environmental Information included the following statistics:

  • Greenhouse gases were highest on record. The major greenhouse gas concentrations, including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, rose to new record high values during 2018. The global annual average atmospheric CO2 concentration was 407.4 parts per million, 2.4 parts per million greater than in 2017 and highest in the modern 60-year measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.
  • The globally averaged surface temperature was the fourth warmest annual global temperature since records began in the mid- to late 1800s. All four warmest years on record have occurred since 2015.
  • Upper ocean heat content reached record highs, despite sea surface temperature cooling slightly since 2016, reflecting continuing accumulation of thermal energy in the top 2,300 feet of the ocean.
  • Across all ocean basins, there were 95 named tropical cyclones, well above the 1981–2010 average of 82. Eleven of those reached the Saffir–Simpson scale Category 5 intensity level, only one less than the record of 12 Category 5 tropical cyclones in 1997.
  • For the seventh consecutive year, global average sea level rose to a new record high and was about 3.2 inches higher than the 1993 average, the year the satellite altimeter record began.
  • The levels of fire activity during 2018 were the lowest since the start of the record in 1997, with a combined burned area globally of about 1.2 billion acres.
  • The annual mean surface air temperature for the Arctic was the third highest since 1900, trailing only 2016 and 2017, at 2.2°F above the 1981–2010 average.
  • On March 17, 2018, the maximum extent of Arctic sea ice measured by satellite was the second lowest in the 38-year period of record, behind only 2017.
  • The September 2018 sea ice minimum tied as the sixth lowest on record. Sea ice extent in September across the Arctic Ocean is declining at a rate of −12.8% per decade.
  • Mexico reported its third warmest year in its 48-year record, and Alaska reported its second warmest year since records began 94 years ago.
  • On April 14–15, 2018, 49.7 inches of rain was recorded at Waipā Gardens, Kauai, Hawaii, setting a new U.S. record for 24-hour precipitation.
  • Jamaica observed its highest annual average maximum temperature since records began in 1971.
  • A record seven extreme snowfall events occurred in the central and southern Peruvian Andes during the austral winter of 2018. These storms contributed to the wettest winter for the region in its 19-year record.
  • Madagascar recorded its all-time maximum temperature of 104.8 on March 16, 2018 and Algeria recorded a new national record of 124.34 on July 5, 2018.
  • Europe experienced its second warmest year since at least 1950, behind only 2014. Several countries, including France, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, reported record high annual temperatures.
  • The highest temperature ever recorded in South Korea was set on August 1, 2018: 105.8 in Hongcheon.