Welcome to Hell Week: The busy summer season for St. John Ambulance volunteers

Three heart attacks. Two seizures. A choking victim and several cases of heat stroke exhaustion.

For St. John Ambulance volunteers at the Royal St. John's Regatta, it's all in a day's work.

Roberta Hewitt, St. John Ambulance's director of marketing and community services, told CBC the regatta is a busy time for the first-aid volunteers, and even more so this year because of the heat.

"They actually had to call for reinforcements by noon and put a call out to get more of our medical first-responder volunteers to go to the lake in the afternoon to help them treat the number of casualties that were coming to our vehicles looking for help," she said.

An ambulance was called to help people more than 20 times Wednesday, said Hewitt.

"It was certainly our busiest regatta in memory," she said. "And of course it was due to the fact that it was just so hot at lakeside yesterday that they had just an intense amount of people who were suffering from heat-related ailments that really needed their help."

And it's not just the regatta that puts St. John Ambulance to the test in the summer. Between the regatta, the Tely 10 race, the folk festival and the George Street Festival, volunteers are so busy they've given this time of year its own nickname.

"We call it Hell Week, except it lasts a couple of weeks," said Hewitt. "So much is happening in the province this time of year, and our volunteers are really, really busy being at these events to provide first aid when needed, and they're doing an absolutely remarkable job."

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