This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hello -- I have a question. My boyfriend has MS and in the summer, if he gets overheated, he will collapse from the heat. His muscles stop working and he falls to the ground, paralyzed until someone drags him to shelter.

The air conditioner is broken in his car and he doesn't have the cash to fix it and so he has collapsed 4x this season.

He still insists on going out and driving in the heat -- he feels he has no choice because he has kids to look after and sometimes he can't avoid going out in the afternoon, when it's hottest.

I'm really alarmed by these collapses -- can he get a heart attack or something? Can heat paralysis ever be fatal?

Yes death is a real posibility. I know of at least three instances of this.

One when a MS person died while sunbathing.

One in a hot-tub.

The most recent was a person near me whose airconditioning broke and died when it was only 95 degrees in the apartment.

I had the same problem of having to drive my car for two years without the airconditioning. I was retired so I only went out at night or very early in the morning.

I did have problems with things like Dr appointments which had to be done during the heat of the day.

jackD