12 News: Street Medicine Team Providing IVs

PHOENIX — Perla Puebla describes last summer working street medicine to help the unhoused as “brutal.”

“We saw a lot of patients, especially in July, that were moderately to severely dehydrated, that were not feeling well. They had some heat exhaustion,” Puebla, a family nurse practitioner and the Associate Medical Director for the of Street Medicine Central at Circle the City, said. “But they did not want to go to the emergency room. They did not want to leave their pets or their belongings behind.”

Puebla said those experiences and 645 people dying from heat-related deaths in Maricopa County last year helped spark the idea to begin providing IV’s for hydration as part of their outreach to those experiencing homelessness.

Of those 645 people, 46 percent of those who died last year were unhoused — around 297 people.

Between the beating sun and heat causing people to sweat, Puebla said it’s tough to stay hydrated. Without hydration, further complications can arise.

“Definitely can lead to organ dysfunction, kidney failure — a lot of problems,” Puebla said.

On their first day offering the IVs last week, Circle the City provided IVs to 20% of the 14 patients seen by one team.