Heatstroke at Graduation

[phisigduchesscv]

Yesterday was graduation day for me (I've finished my masters). YEA!!! Yesterday also just happened to be the hottest day in Los Angles this year. Graduation started at 10:00 a.m. which required all the graduates to line up by 8:45. Graduation is at the Home Depot Center on campus so everything is outdoors. Picture all the graduates in black robes, some with stolls on, plus all of us masters degree candidates had our masters hoods around our necks. We were roasting. Plus the stadium grass with covered with this white plastic platform to make it easy for the wheelchairs but it also reflected the heat back up to us. Thank goodness I had brought a bottle of water plus they had water in the stadium too. Even with drinking the water though right near the end (4 hours total with assembly time) my heart started racing and I started feeling nauseated. I ended up having to leave before they said to move the tassels from the right to the left.

Once I got in to the stadium tunnel one of my friends helped me get my robe and masters hood off and over to a restroom where I was able to run cool water on my hands and splash it on my face and neck. That helped a little bit but I still was pretty shaky. I finally met up with my parents and boyfriend, Daryl, after 15 minutes of resting in the coolness. Daryl took my pulse and at that point it was still 96 beats/minute. I went home kept drinking water, took a cool shower, and went to bed. I was still pretty sick last night though - mom wanted to take me to the hospital and I wouldn't let her.

It turns out a lot of people had to see paramedics, including volunteers, because of the heat. The campus is already thinking about what they need to do next year to prevent this from happening again.

The worst part what was supposed to be a very happy day turned out just physically being miserable. I was so sick I couldn't even meet up with my sisters to take pictures afterwards so I'm really bummed about that too.

Oh well, I'm starting to feel better today and I'm officially an MPA graduate of CSUDH.

Carolyn