The stadium felt stuffy before the game even started. Players grabbed ice to cool down. Amy Steele thought she would be substituted 30 minutes into the game, but she returned to the court after halftime.
While walking through the stadium’s parking lot after the game, she collapsed, and eight years later, she still hasn’t fully recovered from the heat stroke.
Steele played professional netball, a type of basketball popular in Australia, Britain and other countries, for more than 10 years before calling time on her career in 2016.
Instead of hours of intense exercise, she can only take walks or do light yoga. When her heart rate and body temperature start to increase, “my body rebels and everything starts to shut down,” Steele told Business Insider.
Heat stroke can be fatal if the body temperature rises above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and even those who recover from the immediate danger can suffer long-term effects on the heart, kidneys and immune system.
Steele showed signs of severe heatstroke.
Amy Steele was a professional netball player for over 10 years. Chris Hyde/Getty Images
Steele’s professional netball career began at the age of 15 and has travelled around Australia and abroad playing in championship matches. “There have been some really special moments in my career,” she said.
She was training five hours a day, balancing early morning and evening practices with her accounting job.
The day Steele collapsed in 2016, the temperature was over 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Steele’s team was playing a preseason game in Shepparton, about 100 miles north of Melbourne. Officials took humidity and temperature readings in the stadium and deemed it safe to play. But Steele said the readings were taken before the stadium was packed with spectators and sweaty players.
Unlike basketball, netball has no dribbling and has hoops instead of goals with backboards, but both sports require good cardiovascular fitness.
After the game, before collapsing, Steele realized the ice bath he was sitting in was hot. He tried to take a shower but couldn’t figure out how to turn on the tap. Mental confusion is a warning sign of heatstroke.
“One of the key things about heatstroke is that you start to experience cognitive impairment,” said Lacey Alexander, a professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in Steele’s treatment. The brain is sensitive to high temperatures. When it gets too hot, “your brain and neural tissue starts to burn,” she said.
The long-term effects of heat stroke can be debilitating
Eight years after her heat stroke, Amy Steele still suffers from its effects. Louis Blaustein/Eco-Threats
Alexander said restricted blood flow to the gut during heatstroke could cause bacteria to be released into the bloodstream, which could trigger a cytokine storm similar to how some people’s immune systems overreact to COVID-19.
“We see a huge immune system response to severe heat-related events,” she says. This kind of overreaction can set off a series of other illnesses long after heatstroke.
For example, after Steele collapsed and was hospitalized, she developed tonsillitis despite having her tonsils removed, she experienced a recurrence of infectious mononucleosis from her childhood, and she showed signs of kidney inflammation for two years after her hospitalization.
Steele still struggles with fatigue: “I often have to go to sleep at least twice a day to get through the day,” she said.
One day while driving on a hot day, Steele veered into oncoming traffic. With temperatures in the mid-80s, she began to experience cognitive impairment due to the heat.
Although researchers don’t fully understand what causes this sensitivity, Alexander said it could be that heat shock proteins that help protect cells from stress become dysregulated. “This could contribute to making certain individuals more prone to poor heat adaptation in the future,” she said.
As climate change causes global temperatures to rise, Steele wants other athletes to be aware of the long-term effects of heatstroke.
“For me, being a top athlete and in top physical condition, to have to basically rest for the majority of the day was certainly quite debilitating and life-changing,” Steele said.
