5 heat-related deaths confirmed in Dallas County this year, including 1 child

DALLAS COUNTY - The extremely hot temperatures we've seen across North Texas this summer could mean dehydration or in extreme cases death.

"We have now had five deaths that have been confirmed by the medical examiner’s office," said Dr. Phil Huang, Medical Director for Dallas County Health and Human Services.

Dr. Huang says three of those heat-related deaths were confirmed last week by the medical examiner. Two others were confirmed Monday, but the hyperthermia victims actually died weeks or months ago.

"Understand that those actual deaths occurred, probably even 1-2 months ago because it takes 60-90 days I think is what a medical examiner’s office is taking to confirm the cause of deaths," he said.

It takes so long to confirm if a case is heat-related because of different variables.

"Say someone is found in a car or if they have a heart attack related to the heat, was there substance abuse overdose or something like that? You know all these different factors that could cause it," Dr. Huang said.

Of the 5 confirmed heat-related deaths, Huang says one was a child.

"One was a child. I know there were four adults, 30s and 50s I believe," he said.

Dallas County Health was not able to provide any details about the circumstances of the child's death, or any of the other cases.

It is also currently investigating 36 more suspected heat-related deaths.

"Don’t keep kids dogs or pets or things in the car out in the sun," Dr. Huang said.

READ MORE: More heat records to fall this week, a slight break is on the way

As we've been hearing all summer from health experts, take their advice to stay safe in the heat seriously.

 "There’s some increasing levels of severity of heat-related illness. Heat stroke is a medical emergency. At that point, they’ve sort of overwhelmed their body’s ability to compensate and try to cool off," said Dr. Huang.

Tarrant County recently reported 12 heat-related deaths this summer.