Ice baths and ventilators: India's hospitals adapt to killer heat
Indian hospitals begin to adapt to new climate reality with specialist heat units set up to deal with cases of heatstroke.
- Prolonged heatwave causes health crisis in India
- Over 100 dead and 40,000 heatstroke cases registered
- Top hospitals open heatstroke units to treat patients
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The specialist unit at the RML hospital is equipped with ceramic bathtubs where patients can be cooled, ventilators and huge ice-making machines,
Wasnik said the hospital's director decided to open the unit after seeing that meteorologists were predicting an extremely hot summer.
"We hoped that once we set the precedent other (hospitals) would follow," she said.
And they did, spurred to action also by health ministry instructions to prepare for the prolonged and deadly heatwaves being forecast by weather experts.
Across India several other hospitals reserved beds and laid on extra staff to deal with heatstroke patients.
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