Heat stroke
failure of the body to dissipate heat in an excessively hot environment, or during physical exertion
Heat stroke or heatstroke, also known as sun-stroke, is a severe heat illness that results in a body temperature greater than 40.0 °C (104.0 °F), along with red skin, headache, dizziness, and confusion. Sweating is generally present in exertional heatstroke, but not in classic heatstroke. The start of heat stroke can be sudden or gradual. Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition due to the potential for multi-organ dysfunction, with typical complications including seizures, rhabdomyolysis, or kidney failure.
Heat stroke occurs because of high external temperatures and/or physical exertion. It usually occurs under preventable prolonged exposure to extreme environmental or exertional heat. However, certain health conditions can increase the risk of heat stroke, and patients, especially children, with certain genetic predispositions are vulnerable to heatstroke under relatively mild conditions.
Preventive measures include drinking sufficient fluids and avoiding excessive heat. Treatment is by rapid physical cooling of the body and supportive care. Recommended methods include spraying the person with water and using a fan, putting the person in ice water, or giving cold intravenous fluids.
“Heat stroke” enters the record as failure of the body to dissipate heat in an excessively hot environment, or during physical exertion. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Heat, stroke and failure can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q337554. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heat stroke” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.