My brother-in-law passed away on July 23rd from a heat stroke. No one around him realized what was happening; he was hallucinating, stumbling around, acting like he was drunk or something. Everyone left the house and a few hours later he was found and taken to the hospital, where he died several hours later. DO NOT ASSUME ANYTHING! If you have symptoms of a heat stroke, get to the ER immediately! And watch out for loved ones, stay inside, out of the heat, make sure they have plenty of water!

One day in summer I was at a nursery buying some flowers for my back yard. It was very hot and the humidity was around 95%. I felt a little dizzy, but didn't think a lot about it, because I use to have low blood pressure. When I came home and planted the flowers, the dizziness got stronger and I felt like passing out. I went in, laid down on the couch and drunk some cold water, when I got all of a sudden extreme headache and a skin rush, but my skin felt dry and didn't sweat at all. It was like a panic attack that tightened my chest and I had to vomit. With my last strength I crawled to the bathroom but couldn't reach the toilet any more. Everything blacked out around me and I heard loud noises in my ears. I had spastic cramps in my extremities and was unable to move. My vision was blurred and I seriously thought, this is it, I wasn't going to make it. I probably laid there for several hours until I could get back to the couch. I wasn't even able to call 911 because my hands were in a weird spastic position and I couldn't move them. The next day I still had strong symptoms of headache, dizziness, loud noises in my ears and a very limited vision. I drove myself to a doctor, who thought I had a brain aneurysm and sent me immediately to get an MRI. It turned out fine, but I didn't feel better at all for another week. After a week, my vision came back and the headache and dizziness disappeared. Today I know I had a full blown heat stroke and could have died, but the doctor was not even considering this possibility and had no clue, what caused my symptoms.

I was diagnosed with MS about 6 months ago. My husband and I went for a motorcycle ride. I had a beer and a glass of water. I was feeling ok. We headed back on the beltway when my stomach began cramping, I was sweating, could not speak an then all of a sudden the sweating ceased, I blacked out and could not move. Luckily, he got me to an air-conditioned area. It's been days and I am still vomiting, diarrhea and a slight headache and I still do not feel right. I am in bed taking good care of myself now. The MS flares when I get over heated. I must listen to my body!

I was on holiday and had spent the whole day at the beach - swimming in the sea and tanning in the sun. I made quite a few serious mistakes that eventually led to my severe heat stroke. First I had two glasses of beer at the beach, then later that night at home even though I was feeling a bit flushed and hot; I felt ok and had a glass of wine with my friend. Within an hour I was delirious and felt very sick. I collapsed into a stupor like sleep and awoke in the middle of the night feeling nauseous. I ran to the bathroom and I had a terrible bout of diarrhea. I felt like I was just passing a fountain of water from my butt! Then my whole body went ice cold and I thought I was going to pass out on the loo, when suddenly I threw up violently for a few minutes. After that I felt fine. But I kept my stomach light the next day and kept myself hydrated with electrolytes and definitely stayed out of the sun.

I'm only a 15 year old, and I do marching band. Every summer my fellow band members and I march out in the heat, and we always have Popsicle breaks and water breaks, we even get into the water/sprinkler. But today, started this afternoon at 1:55 pm on 8/4/2011, I had my first heat stroke. I was so cold, but I was very hot on the outside and I did charts and marched, but it was very difficult and intense also, so I got really light headed, so I was like, that's nothing at all. Then I almost white out and so the staff told me to be in the garage with a fan. I didn't felt so well, so I thought maybe if I ate lunch I'll be better. But it only made it worse. I started to heat up more and I was very shaky and I started to cry when I get a stomach pain and such. At 5:45 pm, things got very much worse; I got a giant migraine, started to hyperventilate pretty fast and got very light headed that I couldn't see straight. I never learned to relax, but it was very scary, but the good thing is I never had to go to the hospital for it. If I did, I know my band fellows and staff would be very sad about it. Thank God I'm ok.

I had a heat stroke 30 years ago at the age of 16. It was a very hot day at the park, after a while I started feeling weak and felt very dizzy. Next thing I knew I was waking up with alot of people around me. Luckly 2 ladies knew what to do. They carried me to a bathroom and put me on the cold floor and poured water on me. Still till this day I still get sick but I never get that sick because once the heat rises I stay inside. It puts a damper on things but I never want to feel that way again.