Hospitals Confront Climate Change as Patients Sick From Floods and Fires Crowd ERs

When triple-digit temperatures hit the Pacific Northwest this summer, the emergency room at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center was ill prepared. Doctors raced to treat heat-aggravated illness in homeless people, elderly patients with chronic ailments, and overdosing narcotics users. “The magnitude of the exposure, this was so far off the charts in terms of our historical […]

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As Temperatures Rise, So Do the Health Risks for California’s Farmworkers

COACHELLA, Calif. — Leoncio Antonio Trejo Galdamez, 58, died in his son’s arms on June 29 after spending the day laying irrigation pipes in California’s Coachella Valley. News of his death reverberated through the largely Latino community near the Mexican and Arizona borders — another casualty in a dangerous business. “Farmworkers are at the front […]

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‘Whole Families Are Going’: Montana ICU Doctor Battles the COVID Onslaught

The rate of COVID-19 infections in Montana is among the highest anywhere on the globe, and more than 320 Montana residents have died from the virus in the month of November. After weathering a mild spring with few infections, the state and its neighbors are experiencing crushing infection rates that are maxing out hospital resources for the ill. St. Vincent’s […]

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