The woman was also found to have suffered a form of heart attack. Sauna users have been warned after a woman suffered severe heat stroke with multi-organ failure after basking for too long in the heat. Experts from Birmingham Heartlands Hospital described how a patient needed hospital care for 12 days after heat stroke led to a number of serious health problems including a heart attack.
![[Paramedics found the woman with an extremely high core body temperature of 42C]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/01/24/18/Hackney%20Wick%20Community%20Sauna_03.jpeg)
The woman, a daily gym goer, was found in unconscious at an indoor sauna at her local gym. Only around 10 cases of heat stroke linked to saunas have been documented. The unnamed woman in her early 70s also had seizures, liver injury and kidney injury, among other conditions.
Before getting in the sauna she had been performing stretching exercises for around 45 minutes. Paramedics found her with an extremely high core body temperature of 42C, very low blood pressure and a fast heart rate. The woman, who had a history of type 1 diabetes and thyroid problems, was taken to the emergency department at Heartlands.
She was unresponsive and making groaning noises and had a seizure in the emergency department. The patient was cooled with wet towels and a fan when she was in the emergency department, which saw her body temperature return to normal levels, medics said.
The woman regained consciousness two hours after returning to normal body temperature, but she was confused and drowsy for two days. Further investigations revealed she had suffered acute kidney injury – which had resolved 48 hours after she was admitted to hospital.
