Heat stroke in children: A mother narrates how an innocent nap almost turned into a tragedy
Being apprehensive or hyper protective parents is never a positive thing because you are likely to overwhelm your children with unnecessary anxiety.
It must be admitted, however, that being responsible for a helpless and vulnerable person like a child is a very challenging task that hides pitfalls at every corner.
This is something, young Jennifer Abma, the mother of little Anastasia, discovered at her own expense, when she was confronted with an unexpected and terrifying emergency.
It all started on a very hot summer day and little Anastasia had gone to her room to take a nap, but it lasted unusually long time. So, Jennifer, like any other mother would do, went to Anastasia's room to gently wake up her little girl.
The nightmare started from that moment on, she said in her Facebook post that she shared with her others with the aim of helping other parents to avoid this same terrible experience.
NB: Jennifer said that she took this photo of her daughter, Anastasia, AFTER the arrival of the ambulance when the medical staff was already administering first aid to the child and she was standing there waiting.
"It was the most frightening moment I could ever imagine! My daughter had suffered a heat stroke!"
There is nothing more terrifying than not being able to wake your daughter up from a nap. This is the proof that a child does not need to be in the sun to have a heat stroke.
It took us 20 minutes to wake her up and when the ambulance arrived, it was accompanied by health inspectors because they, just like me, did not know what had happened.
Here is an example of how suddenly things can change.
When Anastasia lay down for a nap, I did not realize how hot her room was until went to wake her up. I found her dripping with sweat, boiling hot, and with a bright red face --- and after 15 minutes of trying to wake her up, she was still unresponsive!
The ambulance arrived faster than I could have imagined and the medical personnel found that Anastasia's blood glucose level was 1.2 instead of higher than 4, which is the normal level.
They immediately administered sucrose intravenously and after a few minutes she woke up, very frightened, and started to cry.
"I know that it was not my fault, but it is difficult not to blame ourselves in these cases. This is a tough lesson that I learned and I hope that other parents can use my experience as a warning and remember to always check the temperature of the rooms in your house because they can be just as dangerous as a car parked in the sun.
I am still very shocked and I do not want to even imagine what could have happened if I had not decided to go and wake her up from her nap ...
Certainly, God wanted to protect us, and I am very grateful to the hospital staff and Jay who arrived so quickly and helped to avoid a tragedy."
Probably many of us do not even suspect that such a thing can happen ... We thank Jennifer for sharing her experience, with the hope of helping others and saving them from a terrifying experience like this!
