Tourist rescued from Death Valley after skin ‘melted off’ foot in extreme heat

A European tourer was rescued from Death Valley National Park successful California aft suffering third-degree burns connected his feet, nan National Park Service said past week.

The tourist, a 42-year-old man from Belgium, was taking a locomotion connected nan Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes erstwhile he mislaid his flip-flops.

“People deliberation it’s going to beryllium for illustration nan formation wherever you tin get retired location pinch flip-flops aliases sandals, but because of nan utmost temperatures, those dunes power up conscionable arsenic overmuch arsenic nan pavement does,” Death Valley National Park Service ranger Gia Ponce said successful an question and reply pinch the Los Angeles Times.

The aerial somesthesia that day, July 20, was upwards of 50 C, parkland officials wrote successful their release. That’s already scorching, but nan somesthesia of nan soil dunes themselves “would person been overmuch hotter” than nan aerial temperature.

“The crushed tin beryllium overmuch hotter — 170, 180 (F). Sometimes up into nan 200 range,” Ponce said. In Celsius, that somesthesia scope is astir 76 to 93 degrees.

After losing his flip-flops, nan tourer would person been successful excruciating symptom trying to locomotion retired of nan soil dunes. The man’s family ended up calling for thief and recruiting different parkland visitors to thief transportation him retired to nan parking lot.

“The tegument was melted disconnected his foot,” Ponce said.

When parkland rangers arrived, they had challenges communicating pinch nan Belgian man and his family but it was clear nan tourer needed to beryllium “transported to a infirmary quickly owed to his burns and symptom level,” officials wrote.

Unfortunately, rangers weren’t capable to airlift nan man because helicopters can’t make capable assistance to alert successful utmost power owed to nan aerial being little dense. In nan end, he was loaded into an ambulance and driven to a chopper pad astatine a higher elevation wherever nan aerial somesthesia was a cooler 42 C.

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A Mercy Air chopper transported nan man to University Medical Center successful Las Vegas.

The man suffered third-degree burns, sometimes called full-thickness burns, because these wounds destruct each layers of nan skin, nan epidermis and nan dermis, and tin besides harm one’s underlying bones, muscles and tendons.

Third-degree burns often require skin grafts to switch nan damaged insubstantial pinch patient tegument from different portion of nan victim’s body.

Officials did not springiness an update connected nan man’s information aft he was taken to nan hospital.

It’s unclear if nan man mislaid his flip-flops successful nan soil aliases if they broke. Rangers were incapable to find specifications owed to nan connection barrier.

Death Valley rangers urge that travellers coming successful nan basking summertime months ever enactment wrong a 10-minute locomotion of an air-conditioned vehicle, portion plentifulness of water, eat salty snacks, deterioration a chapeau and sunscreen and not hike aft 10 a.m. to enactment retired of nan day sun.