Cardiac Arrest Due To Weather
A Form Four student of SMK Rancha-Rancha collapsed while contesting in a sprint event at her school's sports day on Sunday, 17th of February 2019. She died minutes after reaching Labuan Nucleus Hospital. Norsahfiza Jaratin, 16 years old, was sprinting in the 200m race when she collapsed about 20m away from the finishing line. This incident took place during 8.55am at the Labuan Matriculation College sports field. Hospital has yet to confirm whether Norsahfiza had a seizure or heatstroke during the race and went into cardiac arrest.
Videos and postings about Norsahfiza Jaratin’s death had caught attention from the public on the social media about her death was due to heatstroke caused by the view of current hot weather. Here comes the question- what is happening to the abnormal changes in the weather of our country? According to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia), a weak El Nino weather phenomenon is predicted to occur in some parts of the country. From the international weather monitoring model, it shows that there is a 90% chance that this hot and dry season will continue until March, while there is a 60% chance that this condition will continue until May. El Nino is an abnormal weather phenomenon that caused the sea temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean to rise in other hand bringing dry weather and higher temperatures to parts of the country included Malaysia.
The relation between health and environmental temperature has always been a concern since long time ago. Various diseases and illness such as heat stroke and hypothermia are directly related to temperature extremes. Other than that, investigations carried out in many cities have shown that the temperature level corresponding with the minimum mortality level is different from places and countries according to the normal climate of each zone and this has reflected the adaptations of the population toward the usual range of temperatures. The maximum mortality level often linked to heat occurs during the first days after the temperature increase.
A phenomenon that happens in specific periods had caused seasonal variation in mortality as periodic changes in weather conditions are one of the fundamental factors that determine the seasonal behaviour of some kind of illness. Disease on cardiovascular and respiratory that causes death are some of the illness which are strongly linked to the changes in temperature. Other than that, elderly people and those with impaired health or suffering from poor social conditions are the most susceptible kind of people who infected and become the victims while weather changes.
Now let’s move forward to our discussion about the case on Norsahfiza Jaratin’s death. According to what Labuan Health Department has mentioned, they denied the truth about Norsahfiza Jaratin’s death during the sport’s event was caused by heatstroke as the temperature on that day was just below 35°C. Its director Dr Ismuni Bohari said the death of Norsahfiza Jaratin was still being ascertained as the temperature on the area during the sports day was reported to be at around 24°C to 31°C. It showed that the temperature was in a normal condition, and it was totally impossible to cause heatstroke. Furthermore, civil defense personnel had given her emergency aid before she was sent to the Labuan Nucleus Hospital Emergency and Trauma Unit at 9.20 am. Despite she was in a very critical condition, but her body temperature was only 37°C, which was at the normal human body temperature. Dr Ismuni who took part in the emergency surgical operation of Norsahfiza claimed that she did not respond to emergency aid and resuscitation efforts, and she passed away at 9.45 am. “A post-mortem has been conducted and the results will be coming out soon. Our department affirmed that her death was not because of heatstroke as alleged. We hope there will be no more viral postings on this incident,” said Dr Ismuni.
Although Norsahfiza’s death case was not linked to the illness caused from the changes in weather, it has brought out an interesting part of the discussion, which is- should schools stop outdoor activities if the heatwave is still persisting?
Since El Nino weather phenomenon has put up the issues about rising temperatures in the country, teachers and parents have suggested the school heads to approach the recent Education Ministry’s advisory to reflect the matter about postponing schools’ outdoor activities. National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan said there are worries among teachers as some headmasters and principals might not follow but ignore the advisory. The reasons are given from school administrators who showed ignorance about the advisory are because some schools decided not to defer their outdoor programmes such as their sports day as invitations have already been extended to the VIPs to attend. If it is in such cases, the school administrators must stay alert of the consequences which may probably cause an accident to occur involving those who are participating in the programme. Harry said that headmasters should not ignore or take the advisory lightly as it was meant to ensure the well-being of students and teacher during the hot spell.
Education activist Mak Chee Kin said that the advisory given by Education Ministry was not stated clearly about the matters of all outdoor curricular activities should be postponed temporarily. The advisory given merely declares that outdoor activities can be deferred if the weather is getting too hot. “This seems very vague and headmasters and principals are given the discretion on whether to cancel or postpone the outdoor activities,” said by Mak Chee Kin, who is the chairman of the Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie), he also declares that parents feel confusing as they assumed through recent media reports that headmasters must postpone all outdoor activities once the weather got too hot.
El Nino weather phenomenon is just a seasonal issue that happens annually in our country. As what MetMalaysia deputy director-general of operations Jailan Simon said, the public should not be too overly concerned on issues caused from hot and dry weather because this is a normal annual phenomenon that often occurs between February and mid-April. He said the inter-monsoon period are predicted to start on next month and it is expected to bring more rain and cooler temperatures.
El Nino weather phenomenon not only bringing impacts to the public, but it also put up the issue around our natural environment. In Penang, the environmental activists declare that before El Nino season ends, forest fires are likely to be flared up on the next coming months. Malaysian Nature Society Penang branch adviser D. Kanda Kumar said the state had been plagued by forest fires for a very long time, but this situation appeared to be getting worse now as the attack of El Nino phenomenon in our country. It was claimed that more than 3,000 cases of open burning were reported nationwide, which are almost the double number of cases in January. Fire forest mostly occurs on an inaccessible and steep hill as well as Greenland areas and these fires have caused the air quality to deteriorate. The air quality is considered good if it is between 0 and 50, moderate between 51 to 100, unhealthy at 101 to 200, very unhealthy at 201 to 300 and hazardous at 301 to 500. But sometimes the main causes of fire forests were not exactly from natural causes, but the ignition of people. As most of the fires are caused by small sparks from a cigarette or illegal open burning of rubbish.
In this case, government and relative departments should take actions to those who attempt to cause fires as fires are not only hazarded to people but also caused destruction to the natural habitats. It is important for the government to play their parts in ensuring the few remaining green lungs in our country to be protected. Sahabat Alam Malaysia president S.M. Mohamed Idris, who concurred with Kanda, said that the government must boost public awareness of the dangers of open burning before disasters really happen.
Heatwaves can affect everyone, especially to elderly people and adolescents. Within this El Nino season, there are many preventative ways for us to protect ourselves and others from getting affected by the heatwaves. First, we should always keep out of the heat once a heatwave is forecasted. We must always plan our day to stay away from the heat. If it is possible, avoid having an outing during the hottest weather of the day which is between 11.00 am to 3.00 pm. Always keep ourselves in the shade areas, and take plenty of water as well as avoid having strenuous outdoor activities such as gardening or sports. Maybe we can do it during cooler times of the day or do it in a cool condition. Next, we must drink plenty amount of water in a day. We should form a habit which is drink regularly even if we are not feeling thirsty. The best choices for drinks are plain water and fresh fruit juice. Furthermore, we should always prevent ourselves from having alcoholic drinks, tea, sweet drinks and coffee that might make us feel dehydrate. Dehydration is one of the illness that often happens during hot weather due to lacking water in our body.
In short, El Nino is now in the process of forming. The hot weather phenomenon is going to end in the middle of the monsoon transition, which is around March and May. As the rainfall is expected to rise, in that case, the temperature of our country will be dropping to a normal state soon.
