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Metro

Scorching temperatures have sent over 400 New Yorkers to the hospital

By
Sam Raskin
Published July 28, 2021
Updated July 28, 2021, 4:03 p.m. ET

Hospitalizations in New York City caused by high temperatures are on the rise this summer, according to city figures.

More than 425 New Yorkers have ended up in hospitals due to heat-related health complications since the beginning of May, as the dog days of summer started earlier in 2021’s summer season, data shows.

Heat-related hospitalizations in June were up 267 percent compared to that month in 2020 and 214 percent over June 2019, according to health department data.

On June 30, when the heat index in New York City was 103 degrees, 64 people were forced to emergency rooms, according to figures compiled by the Department of Health and Hygiene and analyzed by nonprofit news outlet The City, which first reported on the data.

That month, more city residents went to emergency rooms because of heat-induced maladies than the month of June in the three previous years combined, according to the department’s tally.

The sun rises behind the skyline of lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center seen from Jersey City, New Jersey on June 29, 2021.
The sun rises behind the skyline of Lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center seen from Jersey City, New Jersey, on June 29, 2021. Gary Hershorn/Getty Images

In June, 239 New Yorkers ended up in the city’s emergency rooms, data shows. That’s significantly higher than the 65 city residents who suffered heat-related illness that required a hospital visit in 2020, 76 such situations in 2019, and 91 in 2018, according to The City’s chart.

Doctors say they expect and prepare for patients falling ill because of high heat.

“We open up our hospitals to receive patients or just for people to come in, [and] we issue community advisories,” Dr. Rejesh Verma, chief of the emergency department at Kings County Hospital, told The City.

A woman reads a book during a hot day on June 7, 2021.
A woman reads a book during a hot day on June 7, 2021. AFP via Getty Images

“When we know that we’re dealing with hot months, like July and August, we raise the awareness with our residents, staff and our physicians … and we just give them a little bit of a refresher.”

The 426 total emergency room visits from May 1 to July 24 almost equaled 2020’s total, according to an data analysis performed by The City. Last summer, 427 total heat-related ER visits were registered between May 1 and the end of September, the outlet reported.

At the end of June — when Mayor Bill de Blasio instructed New Yorkers to conserve energy during a heat wave in which the temperature at LaGuardia Airport reached 98 degrees — 142 Big Apple residents paid visits to the hospital, The City reported. No one died, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner told the publication.

A man cools off at the public fountain in Washington Square Park on June 30, 2021.
A man cools off at the public fountain in Washington Square Park. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Verma told the outlet that many residents of the East Flatbush neighborhood where his hospital is located don’t have air conditioning, leaving them vulnerable to health issues on hot summer days.

“This is a vulnerable population that may not have cooling at home,” he said, according to The City.

Dr. Rejesh Verma says residents without air conditioning are extremely vulnerable to hot temperatures during heat waves.
Dr. Rejesh Verma says residents without air conditioning are extremely vulnerable to high temperatures during heat waves. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In an average year, New York City sees 10 “heat stress deaths,” according to the city health department. The Big Apple is among the top three “urban heat islands” in the United States, according to a recent report, which gave Gotham a 7.62 index score. That means the temperature in the five boroughs is on average more than 7 degrees warmer than its less built-up neighboring suburbs and less dense cities.

Sonal Jessel, director of policy at WE ACT, suggested soaring average temperatures in New York due to global warming, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, have reduced residents’ “ability to stay safe.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio has encouraged New Yorkers to conserve energy amid high temperature weather.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has encouraged New Yorkers to conserve energy amid hot weather. NYC Mayor's Office

“Climate change has gotten worse, we had a pandemic, people have gotten sick and are unemployed,” Jessel reportedly said. “We don’t know exactly, but I wonder what that’s done to people’s ability to stay safe.”