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Caution stressed after runners treated for exhaustion
Caution is being stressed for the final heat wave of the summer after more than a dozen high school runners needed treatment for heat exhaustion Thursday during a cross country event.
STEWARTVILLE, Minn. (FOX 9) - More than a dozen high school runners needed treatment for heat exhaustion on Thursday during a cross country event just south of Rochester, Minnesota.
Fire and EMS crews say they treated 14 total runners during the afternoon track meet at Bear Cave Park in Stewartville. All the patients were from the girls competition, authorities report.
Out of the patients, four were taken to the hospital for treatment, as a precaution.
Firefighter Aaron Jones with Stewartville Fire and EMS says the number of patients was unusual. Typically, they might see one or two at an event like this. He says the late afternoon heat turned out to be a little warmer than runners were expecting.
In a call with FOX 9, Jones also thanked medical professionals from the crowd, there to support the runners, who came to the assistance of emergency crews who were quickly overwhelmed by the number of heat exhaustion cases.
The cross-country race was canceled before the boys event finished, FOX 9 is told.