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On Monday, November 21, 2016, the southern Australia state of Victoria endured a freak weather condition that resulted in the deaths of three people. They weren’t the only victims.
Over the course of four hours, Ambulance Victoria reported that they received almost 2,000 calls — about one call every four or five seconds — asking for emergency medical support. They deployed 60 extra ambulances and also received the emergency support of added police and firefighters.
All of these callers reported experiencing asthma – many of them for the first time ever, in their lives.
These medical situations had all been caused by the thunderstorm that hit Victoria that day.
When a thunderstorm hits on a day of “unusually” high rye grass pollen, the combination of the pollen, the humidity present in the air, as well as the storm causes rye grass to break as they absorb water from the humid surroundings.
"Normally with rye grass the pollen would be trapped by nose hairs. When it breaks up it goes straight to the lungs,” explained Robin Ould, chief executive of the Asthma Foundation of Australia.
When pollen directly attacks people’s lungs, it causes the lungs to become inflamed and filled with mucus. People then have great difficulty breathing — which is precisely what happened during the storm this week.
The three victims all died of thunderstorm asthma.
Omar Moujalled, 18, was a student and avid gym goer. Hope Carnevali, 20, passed away as she was held by her family members. Apollo Papadopoulos, 35, also passed away of similar conditions.
Doctors are now advising everyone to properly address their hay fever symptoms, in hopes of keeping every patient’s bodily response in check, should another storm like this occur.
Our hearts go out these three victims and their families, as well as anyone else who was affected by the thunderstorm earlier this week.
