MESA, Ariz. — It started out as a typical commute - typical for Timothy Young.
"I was switching to the light rail," Young said. "I got an addiction to Pokémon, I was playing Pokémon downtown Mesa. I was waiting at the light rail station, next thing I know I was being woken up by EMTs."
He said he passed out in the heat on July 27 on the light rail pavement near Mesa Dr. and Main St. in downtown Mesa.
He remembered it being 119 degrees that day.
"That’s all from 10 minutes on the ground, unconscious," he said, showing the burn scars on his left shoulder and left calf.
Those ten minutes led to a lifelong change.
"It looked like a carved-out pumpkin," he said, shuddering at his initial injuries.
He was rushed to the hospital – first for dehydration. Then doctors saw the severity of his burns.
"The first day it looked like a sunburn, the next day it looked like a piece of burnt marshmallow," he explained.
He said hospital staff shared that this happens more often than people think during the summer. He learned that many people burned on pavement or other hot surfaces avoid seeking medical attention and risk infections because the burns don't set in right away.
Maricopa County tracks heat deaths and heat injuries and this July had the biggest spike in heat hospitalizations.
Young spent two months at the hospital and after a series of surgeries, including skin grafts, finally got to go home and back to work.
"I feel bad for my coworkers," Young said "I sit there struggling wondering how I’m going to keep up with what I used to do."
He still has healing to do - including a lot of skin stretching, rehabilitation and possibly another surgery.
He's put together at GoFundMe page to help with expenses while he's in recovery.
"You still hold on to that hope that everything will be okay and it will work itself out," he said.
His two biggest takeaways from this scary experience: drink water and electrolytes; and make sure you put booties on your pets paws to protect them from the pavement.
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