Gabrielle Russon
Disney World first responders rushed to 86 heat illness calls over 11 days around the giant resort during last month’s heat wave, new records show.
Around 1 in 4 calls ended in a hospital visit, while the rest of those affected were either treated and released or refused care.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District released the call log of services in response to a Florida Politics public records request, which reveals the challenges that Florida’s extreme heat poses to the world’s most popular theme parks.
The youngest patient last month was a baby boy whose caregivers reported that he had experienced a fever while riding Epcot’s Ratatouille ride. The baby, who was under 1 year old, was treated and released.
The oldest patient was an 81-year-old woman who suffered heat exhaustion at Disney Springs’ food trucks. She went to the hospital.
And it wasn’t just the elderly and newborns; Disney treated people of all ages.
The heat wave’s most dangerous day was July 29, when Orange County was under an extreme heat warning — meaning the heat index reached or exceeded 113 degrees due to high temperatures and humidity. It was only the fifth time that Orange County ever recorded a heat index that high, said Will Ulrich, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Melbourne office.
“Heat is a silent killer,” Ulrich said. “You can feel it, but you can’t see it. We always preach about people taking protective actions against severe weather and tornadoes and things like that. But temperature extremes have to be considered, too, especially in a state where we see so many people enjoying the outdoors year-round.
“People who live in Florida are used to the heat in June, July, and August, but all it takes is temperatures just a couple degrees above normal to really start to take a toll on the human body. … Of course, with our tourism capital of the world — Orlando — we have visitors that aren’t necessarily acclimated to the heat.”
Three Disney-goers passed out from the heat last month at Epcot’s France pavilion, Hollywood Studios’ Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and Disney Springs, according to the records.
Others complained of nausea, headaches and weakness on days when Orange County was under heat advisories or the excessive heat warning, from July 18-21 and July 25-31.
A 14-year-old threw up at Animal Kingdom’s Asia land and then went to the hospital. At the Magic Kingdom, a 44-year-old woman checked her Apple Watch and reported that her heart rate was 160 beats per minute, which is considered a fast rate.
Disney has recognized that high temperatures can impact attendees. To combat the heat, Disney gives out free ice water at quick-service locations and uses umbrellas, canopies, misters and fans to cool down guests in the parks. Water fill-up stations are located throughout parks and resorts. And the theme parks have first-aid centers, while Disney hotels provide in-room medical services for overheated guests.
They also give cast members rest and hydration periods and have designed breathable costumes to alleviate the heat’s impact.
Disney declined to provide a statement for this story.
So far this year, Orange County has been under a heat advisory 13 times — a number that is on the rise compared to past years. In 2019, for instance, the National Weather Service issued only two heat advisories to alert the public when the heat index reached at least 108 degrees. There were no heat advisories in 2020 and 2021.
July is Florida’s hottest month, where the average high temperature is 92 degrees, Ulrich said.
However, this July was the 14th-hottest July on record dating back to the past 130 years. That’s despite the recent heat wave not setting any daily record temperatures. The heat wave did, however, set a record for a warm daily low, Ulrich said. The coolest it got on July 28 was 78 degrees, which made it difficult for those in the area to find any reprieve.
The heat was undoubtedly not just a Disney problem.
Orange County Fire Rescue received eight heat illness calls from SeaWorld Orlando and one from Epic Universe during the same time period that Disney’s government fielded 86 medical calls for help.
The Orlando City Fire Department did not report any heat illness calls to the other two Universal theme parks, according to Department spokesperson Jesse Canales. Universal uses its own private ambulance system, which makes it tough to track public records like at Disney.
Outside the Disney bubble, SunRail trains slowed down because the heat can cause the tracks to twist. Orange County opened emergency cooling shelters.
It’s unclear whether Orlando’s two largest hospital systems experienced a spike in emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses last month. Orlando Health said it doesn’t track that information; AdventHealth did not respond to a request for comment.
Dr. Ariel Mejia, a faculty member at the University of Central Florida’s medical school, warned that children and seniors are especially vulnerable in the heat.
The most common illness people experience is heat exhaustion, when, over time, they become dehydrated and feel tired or sick. Retreating to shade and drinking water helps people recover, Mejia said.
The more dangerous condition that requires hospitalization is heatstroke, the doctor said.
Heatstroke causes people’s core temperature to rise to the point where their muscles break down, they get mentally confused and their organs can suffer damage, Mejia said. Preexisting conditions also increase the likelihood of people experiencing heatstroke, he added.
For some, their health struggles persist for months or years.
Some people struggling to find answers Google “long-term heatstroke effects” and stumble upon Thomas Clanton’s name.
The University of Florida professor in applied physiology and kinesiology published a study this year that found that mice suffer from obesity, chronic heart disease and other long-term health problems for months — which is the equivalent of years for humans — after they experienced heatstroke.
His research on mice stands out because researchers don’t know what happens to humans after a heat illness since most patients aren’t tracked long term after their emergency room visits.
“I get phone calls and emails from people all over the country who have had heat stroke or heat illness and have had consequences for years and years and have never been able to find anybody to help them,” Clanton said following his published studies.
But Clanton is a Ph.D. — not an M.D. — so he can’t treat them. He can only listen to them and remind them they are not alone.
He plans to build a national registry to help connect patients with physicians who are heat experts as the professor continues to study heat and its effects.
