Experts discuss difficulty of tracking heat-related deaths in Texas
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Experts say the impact of the heat is hard to track, but there are signs it's having a greater impact on people's health than we've been able to document.
This week, an autopsy report confirmed that heat played a factor in the death of three family members, whose decomposed bodies were found in a Brownsville apartment in May.
READ MORE: Heat exposure caused death of family members found in Brownsville apartment
Hidalgo County Health Authority Dr. Ivan Melendez said deaths contributed to heat are often unreported.
“Death is defined by: your heart stops, so you have to work backwards [and ask] why did the heart stop,” Melendez said. “Unfortunately, tracking is difficult to do because it becomes very subjective."
High heat causes muscles to break down, sending proteins to our kidneys that can cause them to get overworked, and start to fail.
This affects the heart, and the corpse that's left for a coroner is hard to interpret.
“Someone may say, 'heart failure exacerbated by environmental factors.' The other person might not even say 'environmental factors,' Melendez said. “Someone else may say 'heat stroke.' So, I believe that it's underreported. The mechanism by which these types of deaths occur depend on how the death certificate is reported."
An investigation published on Wednesday by the Texas Tribune and Inside Climate News reported Texas officially had 365 deaths attributed to heat in 2023.
CHECK OUT THE INVESTIGATION HERE
The state recorded 777 heat deaths between 2013 and 2019.
An analysis in the report estimated that number should be about 25% higher.
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