Student suffers heat stroke

A university student was rushed by ambulance to the UT Medical Center last Wednesday after suffering a heat stroke in a non-air-conditioned campus residence hall.

Hope Lohmueller, an 18-year-old freshman in business, said she had just returned to her residence at Strong Hall from a recreational hip-hop class when she began experiencing dizziness and shortness of breath.

“I felt fine (during the class), and I didn’t feel like I needed to stop or anything. ... It was mostly just when we were walking back,” Lohmueller said. “We were walking outside the dorm. I just had to stop and sit down because I was feeling dizzy and hot — I’d been having a headache for the past two days — that’s when I started breathing hard and hyperventilating.

“And some people took me inside and carried me to the lower level (of Strong) where there was air. They put a cold rag on my head. My body was tingling, and I couldn’t feel my feet or hands.”

According to Lohmueller’s mother, MaryAnn Lohmueller, Hope’s friends called 911. UTPD responded to the call and then notified Rural-Metro ambulance, who transported her to the UT Medical Center at roughly 10:30 p.m. Lohmueller was released at roughly 2:30 a.m. Thursday. Lohmueller’s mother said Hope had no previous instances of heat stroke, fainting or exhaustion.

Hope Lohmueller has been relocated to Humes Hall, her first choice in living quarters, and MaryAnn Lohmueller, who traveled from Cincinatti after learning of her daughter’s ailment, is temporarily staying in the Apartment Residence Hall at no charge.

MaryAnn Lohmueller said she was aware Strong did not have air-conditioning units in every room before Hope moved in, but was reassured by housing officials that the heat would only last for a few days. Officials from University Housing did not immediately return a phone call from The Daily Beacon on Friday afternoon.

Lohmueller’s mother said the less-than-desirable heat conditions of Strong Hall had been taking their toll on the 18-year-old since she moved in to the hall on the previous Saturday.

“The bottom line is the cumulative effect of four days and three nights in anywhere from 93- to 97-degree dorm heat led Hope to have a heat stroke,” MaryAnn Lohmueller said. “If I knew that Strong Hall was having temperatures in the 90s, I would not have ever allowed her to live there. I trust that the university is providing safe housing, because that’s what their mission statement said.”

Elizabeth Hall, the director of Strong Hall, said University Housing has been trying to accommodate the women by allowing them to sleep in the air-conditioned lounges of Strong and Massey Halls, which can house approximately 30 women each. Hall also said the residents of Strong have been staying with friends, sleeping at home or staying with Strong’s resident assistants, who do have air-conditioning in their rooms. Although a lack of air-conditioning is nothing new to Strong, Hall said the RAs that have lived in the hall before have told her the heat is worse than it has been in previous years.

Roughly 200 residents currently live in Strong. MaryAnn Lohmueller said she is concerned for the well-being of those students, as well as residents of Melrose Hall, which is also without air conditioning in many rooms.

“All these girls over there are putting up with these conditions,” she said. “The parents are the ones paying for tuition and paying for housing, and everyone in Strong is paying for unsafe conditions. They basically just ask the girls to put up with it.”

Hope Lohmueller is currently recovering from the heat stroke, as well as a case of strep throat, which her mother attributes to the heat. Although her experience at UT has gotten off to a rocky start, Hope Lohmueller said she did not believe the incident would negatively affect her relationship with the university.

“It was more just the heat and what happened and the effect of that,” she said. “But it definitely makes me think more about stuff I could have done other than come here and stay in that dorm.

“It’s a great dorm, there’s just no way I could have stayed without AC,” she added.

MaryAnn Lohmueller has requested the university compensate for her daughter’s medical expenses, and said she plans to pursue further measures.

Strong and Melrose Halls were both slated for closure after the 2003-2004 school year, but a surge in housing applications contributed to their reopening in the fall of 2004, the Beacon reported in June 2004.

The state of Tennessee has been baking in a heat wave since early August. According to the National Weather Service, records high were recorded last week including Wednesday. Some media outlets, including USA Today, have reported up to 50 heat-related deaths in the South.

According to Ranee Randby, spokeswoman for the Knox County Health Department, no heat-related deaths have been reported in the county, but special inquiries and investigations must be made to determine whether temperature was a factor in a death.