CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) -- Illinois Emergency Medical Services said they treated 24 people for medical calls during Thursday night's football game, with 90% of them dealing with heat-related illnesses.
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The program manager said that's standard for the first game of the season, but that number doesn't include people who refused treatment or made a call for someone else. He said thankfully, everyone's okay.
"All of them were kind of feeling faint, tired, dizzy, that sort of thing," said Blake Kuhns, Illinois Emergency Services program manager. "Bringing them into the air conditioning, setting them down on a gurney or a cot and letting them kind of slowly cool off as well as rehydrate. And the first aid stations are typically the cure for most of our patients that we see due to the heat-related issues."
He said extra precautions kept people safe, including the stadium offering free water coolers and opening their doors on their cooling buses.
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