Local high school students trained in first aid and CPR are volunteering at the Eugene 08: Olympic Track & Field Trails dispensing sunscreen and bandages and advice on how to avoid heatstroke.
Members of the Red Cross’ First Aid Service Team are located in two tents, one at each end of East 15th Avenue.
Amelia Hunnicutt, 16, said Eugene 08 is her first event with the team. She said the worst incidents she has seen in her three days on the job were two cases of heatstroke on Saturday and one man with heat exhaustion.
Hunnicutt said numbness in the face and arms and disorientation are sings of heatstroke. Volunteers try to cool the victim immediately and call for emergency medical service backup, she said.
Heat exhaustion, which is not as severe as heatstroke, can be treated with liquids and moving the victim to an air-conditioned environment, according to MedicineNet.com.
“I guess the most important thing is hydration,” Hunnicutt said.
Festival-goers should drink plenty of water, wear light clothing and use plenty of sunscreen, she said.
Most persons visiting the first-aid tents have come with blisters, cuts and scrapes, volunteer Jamie Whistler said.
“A lot of people come with scraped shins” sustained when stepping off stationary bicycles at the Safeway Human Powered Energy Tent, Whistler, 14, said.
First-aid tents offer bandages, ice packs and sunscreen.
“People are supposed to bring their own (sunscreen), but if they have forgotten it” first-aid tents always have a bottle on hand, Whistler said.
The First Aid Service Team has about 75 adult and youth volunteers. An adult is always stationed at each tent, volunteer Cecil Kribs said.
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