LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Doctors at MountainView Hospital are using dedicated max-cooling rooms to treat patients arriving with heat-related illness, as emergency physicians warn body temperatures in those cases can reach as high as 108 degrees — a level that can cause permanent brain damage.
How the rooms work
The hospital has two max-cooling rooms. A single button activates dampers in the HVAC system that redirect cold air directly into the room, dropping the temperature to about 55 degrees. The rooms can be ready before paramedics arrive with the patient.
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“So it used to be I’d have to call somebody from maintenance and they’d have to get on their laptop and go and redo all the HVAC system, but they literally just have an on-off switch,” said Clarence Dunagan, department chair at Mountain View Hospital. “So if we put a patient in here, we click the button and within a few minutes, you’ll just feel cold air dumping out on top of them and it gets down to about 55 degrees in here.”
Previous cooling methods
Before the max-cooling rooms were in place, doctors said they wheeled in large fans to help keep rooms cool. The rooms can also be used alongside ice and towels to cool patients quickly.
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