Shrewsbury UPS Driver Nearly Died Of Heat Stroke, Wife Says

SHREWSBURY, NJ — A Shrewsbury woman is waging a campaign to get UPS to put air conditioning in their trucks — after her husband nearly died from heat stroke in 2016. James Klenk is a UPS driver who works out of their Tinton Falls warehouse, said his wife, Theresa Klenk.

"After several days of working in the humid August heat in 2016, my husband woke up feeling ill. Hours later, he was in the emergency room and his kidneys were failing," wrote Theresa on this Change.org petition she started. It has 778,000 signatures so far.

Klenk, who works as a nurse, said she's seen dozens of people come in suffering from heat stroke. She just never expected her husband to be one of them.

Her husband felt a little worse each day of his route during that summer, his wife told the Asbury Park Press. That particular day, his vision was blurry and he felt extremely dizzy. She took him to the ER at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where James almost died. Doctors were talking about an advance directive and end-of-life choices, she recalled.

Fortunately, James survived.

"My husband was re-hydrated and stabilized by a team of doctors," she said on the Change.org petition. "He was one of the lucky ones."

But today, he and his wife are fighting to require UPS and other package delivery companies have AC on in the trucks. Klenk said she met with a UPS executive in Atlanta, but nothing has changed. UPS told her air conditioning wouldn't work well for drivers who get out of the truck every few minutes, she told the Asbury Park Press.

"Drivers like my husband are at incredibly high risk during summer months, when temperatures in their trucks can climb to 180 degrees. As a result, they can face dehydration and heat stroke, which can have life-threatening consequences," she wrote on the petition.

To this day, her husband James still cannot be outside in high heat. At family BBQs and picnics, the family sets up shade for him, but he still often has to go inside. Today, he tries to save up all his vacation days to be used in the height of summer so he doesn't risk a potentially fatal heat stroke again.

"After 14 years as a dedicated employee of UPS, I can’t believe my husband has to worry about his safety at work," she wrote.