Eighty-Two Degrees, No Certified Staff, and a Dizzy Participant

Stop the class first - you cannot assess anyone over loud music and movement.

1. Kill the music, tell the class to keep walking in place or take a seat, and send one person to the front desk to call 911 and bring the AED and a cool wet towel. Do not leave the participant alone.
2. Kneel to her level. Do not stand her up. Keep her seated with knees bent and head supported, and if she is fully alert and not vomiting, let her sip water. Loosen clothing, fan her, apply cool towels to the neck and forehead.
3. Check responsiveness, breathing, and pulse; ask about chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, palpitations, and when she last ate and drank. Note times.
4. Call 911, or confirm it has been called, on her behalf. Justification: age 71, a diuretic (volume depletion plus electrolyte loss), an 82 °F room, heavy sweating, a fast pulse, and new dizziness make heat illness and a cardiac or orthostatic event indistinguishable in the field. Altered mental status, fainting, chest pain, breathing difficulty, or no clear improvement within a few minutes of cooling all escalate. A fast pulse with pallor in a hot room is not something to watch for twenty minutes.
5. If she becomes unresponsive and not breathing normally, start CPR and use the AED as soon as it arrives; AEDs are designed for lay use with voice prompts.
6. She does not drive herself home, and she does not go back into class.

Reduce the thermal load immediately and change the session, not just the thermostat.

• Both fans on high, open every door that is not a security or fire hazard, turn off unnecessary lights, and lower the music so you can be heard.
• Cut the high-low work to low impact. Remove jumping, add longer recovery, and schedule a water break every 10 minutes. Offer a seated or standing-rest option without explanation.
• Shorten the class by 10-15 minutes and extend the cool-down. A 50-minute high-low session at this heat index is not a defensible prescription for a mixed-age class.
• If the room cannot be cooled meaningfully, move the class to a cooler space or cancel the remainder. Facility policy already states 68-72 °F; you are the person on the floor with the duty of care, and heat illness risk rises with humidity because sweat cannot evaporate.
• What you say: brief, calm, non-clinical - 'We have a participant who needs EMS; keep walking, the front desk is handling it, we are going to cool the room and take it low-impact tonight.' No speculation about her diagnosis, no details about her medications or history.

After: report in writing that the air handler has been failing for a week and that the class was conducted outside the facility's own temperature policy. That record protects participants and you.

Documentation (same night, before you leave):

• An incident report with objective facts only: time, thermostat reading and humidity, what she reported, what you observed, what you did and when, who called 911, and when EMS arrived. No speculation, no opinions about fault, and no statements about insurance or liability. Never write 'she should have…'
• Notify the manager on duty and the facility's risk contact per policy, and keep a copy as the policy allows. Ensure her enrollment waiver and health-history form are on file.
• A follow-up contact the next day, within whatever privacy limits the facility sets. Keep it to welfare, not medical advice.

System follow-up:

• Push for staff CPR/AED certification for every shift that runs group exercise, a posted emergency action plan, and documented AED checks.
• Get a written heat policy with a temperature cutoff and a modification protocol, since this room has been out of policy for a week.
• Add heat guidance to participant orientation - hydration before class, medication questions routed to their physician, and permission to stop at any time.
• Review your own emergency response with a peer or supervisor. The AED being present but the staff untrained is the finding that matters most.