Story highlights
- The heat wave has killed over 1,000 people in Karachi and Sindh province
- At least 650 bodies have been brought to Karachi's largest morgue since Saturday
- One Karachi hospital has treated more than 7,000 people in the past four days
Karachi, Pakistan (CNN)The unforgiving heat has spared no one. The very young, the very old and those in the prime of their lives.
Corpses covered in flies lie outside city morgues. Inside, bodies up on bodies are piled high.
Hospitals are overwhelmed, relying on volunteers and donors for ice, water and even spare beds.
By Thursday, the death toll from the oppressive heat wave in Sindh province topped 1,000, officials told CNN.
But even without the numbers, the full extent of the misery isn't hard to gauge.
Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Covered corpses from a devastating heat wave lie in a mortuary in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 26. The death toll from the heat wave in Sindh province topped 1,000, officials told CNN.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A Pakistani child pours water on his cattle to cool off during a hot afternoon in Peshawar on Thursday, June 25.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Pakistanis bring a heatstroke victim to a hospital in Karachi on Thursday, June 25. More than 1,000 people have died in a heat wave in southern Pakistan, officials say.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A patient suffering from heatstroke receives treatment at a Karachi hospital on Wednesday, June 24.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Pakistanis receive ice during the heat wave in Karachi on June 24.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A man awaits medical help for his daughter who is suffering from dehydration due to the extreme weather in Karachi on June 24.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A man helps move a heat wave victim to a Karachi hospital on Monday, June 22.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Pakistanis rest at the mosque during the heat wave in Karachi on June 22.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A Pakistani man cools down at a mosque during the heat wave in Karachi on June 22.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
A Pakistani man rests at a mosque during the heat wave in Karachi on June 22.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Pakistani volunteers and relatives prepare to shift the bodies of heat wave victims into the cold storage of the Edhi morgue in Karachi on June 22.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Pakistanis cool off at a river outside Islamabad on Sunday, June 21.
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Photos: Pakistan's deadly heat wave
Relatives mourn the death of a heat wave victim at the Edhi morgue in Karachi on June 21.
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Overwhelmed hospital
At the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Center in Sindh's capital, Karachi, heat stroke victims are wheeled in daily, swelling the numbers well beyond capacity.
The overwhelmed doctors and nurses do what they can.
But with supplies limited, the government-run hospital is relying on volunteers and donors for even the basic necessities, they say.
Family members tend to many of the patients, wiping their brows with sponges and keeping them cool with wet, grimy towels.
"I felt so hot, I was vomiting," an elderly man told CNN. "I felt weak and my heart sank."
Overpacked morgue
At the Edhi morgue, the largest still operating in Karachi, the picture is even more dismal. A charity runs the facility, but it's struggling.
The stench of death is felt even before visitors reach the gates.
Pakistan morgue overwhelmed by heat wave deaths 02:26
A handwritten sign outside says the morgue is filled to capacity, while bodies lie outside.
Daily power outages, as the city tries to keep up with the demands of 16 million residents, mean the cold storage unit that houses bodies is hot and sticky.
The dead, it seems, are denied the dignity they deserve.
Brutal heat
The city is used to baking in the heat around this time of the year, just before the monsoon rains arrive as welcome relief.
But this year's heat wave has been particularly brutal.
It began Friday. On Saturday, temperatures reached 44.8 degrees Celsius (112.64 degrees Fahrenheit) -- the highest-recorded temperature in the country in the last 15 years.
Sunday's temperature dipped slightly to 42.5 Celsius (108.5 F).
Cooler temperatures are expected to arrive later in the week.
Pakistan heat: 'I have no water, no power at my home' 01:44
Ramadan obligations
The heat wave comes at a time when this predominantly Muslim country's citizens are observing Ramadan. During the holy month, the faithful fast from sunup until sundown.
This means that, amidst these scorching temperatures, Pakistanis are forgoing food and water.
Clerics are reminding residents that they can forego fasting if they feel the soaring temperatures are life-threatening.
"My son had a high temperature and then he had a fit," one woman told CNN
Asked if she had water and electricity, she replied, "Nothing. We have none of those things."
