I just wanted to take a moment of silence for the Minnesota Vikings player, Korey Stringer, who died from complications of heat stroke. I’m not a fan of Minnesota but my prayers go to his family and friends and anyone else suffering a loss.
The tragedy is that heat stroke is 100% preventable. The Israeli army lost more people in the 7 day war to heat stroke than to bullets. They undertook a large study to find out how to avoid it in the future. The prevention method is simple. Even in the desert heat drinking 8 oz. or more of water every 15 minutes does the trick.
If a team is going to push themselves in a heat stroke prone situation the team doctor and coaches should be aware of what the prevention methods and the symptoms of heat related problems are. If they took a quick temperature reading on the guys on the way in, and again on the way out of the showers after practice, and hosed the guys down a few times and made sure they drank enough during practice nobody would have to die.