Posted on 10/10/2023 7:03:22 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
August 2016 was, at the time, the planet’s hottest month on record. In Freehold, New Jersey, where Jim Klenk was driving his usual route for UPS, midday temperatures were hitting highs in the 80s and 90s.
During one of those punishing late-summer days, Klenk, who was 58, started feeling sick. He was disoriented, his wife, Theresa Klenk, recalled. He hadn’t been able to urinate all day.
Like most of America’s more than 1.5 million parcel delivery drivers, Jim drove a vehicle that lacked air conditioning. On a typical shift, he would be in and out of his truck every few minutes, spending the bulk of his time in the back cargo area, where temperatures can exceed 120 degrees, according to the Teamsters union, which represents UPS drivers.
Theresa, a nurse, said Jim didn’t want an ambulance or a trip to the ER.
Eventually, though, she managed to get him to the hospital where she worked. He was already in kidney failure by the time they arrived.
“They pulled me out and asked me what Jim’s last wishes would be,” she said.
Heatstroke, one of the most common and most deadly heat-related illnesses, had put Jim in acute renal failure, Theresa said. But he got lucky, and he was able to go home after five days in the hospital.
For Theresa, Jim’s close call was a turning point. At the time, she said, no UPS drivers wanted to speak up about the increasingly brutal conditions for fear of being reprimanded. She felt uniquely positioned to begin advocating for change.
(Excerpt) Read more at channel3000.com ...
“Midday temperatures were hitting highs in the 80s and 90s.”
Sounds like Florida for six months of the year.
That’s it! I want the government mandated air conditioning installed in my workshop post haste! It was routinely over 100° in my shop.
Pulling engines, pulling transmissions, dismantling vehicles it’s just as hard as getting in and out of a package delivery truck. Might I say worse.
(Going to need a heater too. It’s 35° out this morning)
Sounds like southern Arizona in spring and fall. It’s still hitting 100 most afternoons at our place.
But it’s a dry heat...
He’s too old to be doing that kind of work anyway
That will tear you down at that age
My mother worked in the kitchen in a restaurant here in Florida as part of her job.
Theresa and Jim are not too smart. Most people teach their children how to recognize heat stroke.
Obviously too hot for snowflakes. (See what I did there? 😂)
It HAD TO HAPPEN at some point! (IF TRUE)
Well I just saw it on the Internet, so it MUST BE TRUE! /s
AND it was from “scientists”. /s
Several years ago, I suffered heat exhaustion after playing golf with many of the same symptoms. My wife put me in a ice bath to lower my body temperature and fortunately I was able to keep down Gatorade to avoid a trip to the ER. I was wobbly for months after. It is critical to stay hydrated and maintain electrolyte levels during weather with high humidity.
This gal isn’t much of a nurse to blame dehydration on climate change. A little common sense goes a long way. Its odd that a hospital would ask her what his last wishes are. What are they going to do, get him a steak dinner?
The affluent people now living in homes in my Florida neighborhood have had much of the tree cover cut down.
Trees can make a noticeable difference in temperature.
Many new neighborhoods are packed with houses and lack old growth tree cover.
The tree cutting has far more effect on raising temperatures than minor increases of CO2.
I worked on a roof for 44 years I learned how to drink Gatorade and water everyday.
Sounds like the husband wasn’t drinking his water should have a cooler with your sandwich some fruit Gatorade used to drink 3 gallons of it at least a day unless it was over a hundred I drank more.
I would get the powder Gatorade and a 3 gallon Igloo cooler plus I always had my regular cooler with a couple bottles of water
Fat guy with hangover is dehydrated, News at 11.
Didn’t they already know about the thousands of UPS delivery drivers that die of heat stroke in Florida every day?
Oh wait... no they don’t
Being a UPS driver is hard work - and well compensated work at that. Ours at work makes well over $100K.
Maybe the wife should pack a cooler for her husband every morning so he doesn’t get heat stroke.
Remember back when one of the climate measuring stations was in the city, paved blacktop parking lot, with air conditioners, exhaust fans, and other heat producing devices dumping heated air into the testing zone?
SCIENCE!
City buses didn’t always have air conditioning.
Transit buses in my area still have ceiling ports that can be opened.
DRINK MORE WATER!
“””Pulling engines, pulling transmissions, dismantling vehicles it’s just as hard as getting in and out of a package delivery truck. Might I say worse.”””
You are working at your own pace, a UPS driver isn’t.
So instead of common sense actions, like ac and drinking a lot of fluid, she has to try to control the whole world.
Typical leftist.
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