The following incident is from a patient. She said that as an excellent swimmer and cautious person that people would have found it hard to believe that she died in a hotel hot tub but that that was very nearly what happened.

She said that her husband was at a meeting and was due back to their suite at 9:30 at the latest. She decided to take a hot tub bubble bath at about 9:00. This evidently was quite a treat for her as she never seemed to have the time at home. She planned to stay in the tub for 15 minutes then get out and take a cool shower. Well, instead she got in the tub and started filling it up and it felt so good she continued to let the very hot water dribble into the tub. She said she must have been so relaxed that she fell asleep. She then lost track of the time and about 45 or more minutes later she woke up and tried to get out of the tub. That was when she realized she was in trouble. She said she was extremely dizzy and nauseated and burning up. She looked down and noticed her skin was beet red. She said she barely made it to the bed without passing out. She couldn’t even dry off. She needed help but got no answer when she called out for her husband. She couldn’t even get to her phone and the hotel phone was on the other side of the bed. She couldn’t reach it either. She knew she needed to cool down quickly and needed cool cloths and cool water but was so sick, dizzy, and nauseated she couldn’t move. She said she recognized the fact that she was suffering from hyperthermia and needed help before she went into hyperthermic shock or had a heat stroke. She said her husband came in about that time and when he saw her he knew she was in trouble. He quickly got cool towels to go over her and cool water for her to drink. She and he both knew that people have died from a heat stroke. As her husband and she were both in the health care business (RN’s) they both knew that this was a very scary situation. He was appalled that she had done this to herself. She was too. She certainly knew better. She said the whole thing scared her so badly that she felt she would never get into another hot tub. Staying in the very hot water for so long was bad enough but letting the hot water continue to slowly run the whole time she was in it very nearly cost her her life.

I related this story to you, my readers, just so you never do such a foolish thing. Thanks for listening.