Carla Gates said she's sure heat was a factor in her 66-year-old husband's death, even though she's still waiting for the autopsy report. “I will believe this until the day I die, that it was heat-related," Carla Gates said. Even when it seems obvious that extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don't always reflect the role it played. But as things stand now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports just 600 to 700 heat deaths annually in the United States. Utah and Massachusetts are among states that do not track heat-related deaths where exposure to extreme heat was a secondary factor.

Source: ABC News August 13, 2023 06:11 UTC