Heat of Battle : Sports: One of L.A.’s hottest and most humid days of year doesn’t stop most ex-patients from competing in the Olympic-style Transplant Games.

Never mind that it was high noon on one of the hottest, stickiest, smoggiest days of the year.

Carmen Arroyo was on a sizzling tennis court, playing her heart out. Not to mention her left and right lungs.

Arroyo is a triple-organ transplant recipient from Denver. And she was one of 838 competitors from across the country and Canada who gathered Friday in Westwood and Encino for the 1992 U.S. Transplant Games, a biennial Olympics-style sports competition for those who have received lifesaving organ donations.

“It’s hot and humid. I wish I was back in Colorado,” Arroyo, 43, said. “I can’t tell you the word I’d use to describe this weather.”

Off court, competitor Amnon Dallal of Skokie, Ill., stood in the shade of contest officials’ tent to wait his turn to play. He was also steaming.

“It’s too hot to play tennis for any people, not just transplant people,” said Dallal, 62, who received a new heart three years ago. “They picked the wrong day and time for this. The middle of July is the worst time to be in Los Angeles.”

The thermometer at the Balboa Golf Course in Encino, where the games’ golf matches were being staged, registered 98 degrees. Heart transplant recipient Gordy Ochs, 50, of Seattle sought refuge in an air-conditioned snack bar. He was nursing a frosty glass of beer.

“It’s hotter than I like it. I like it around 70 degrees,” Ochs said. “All we can do here is drive our carts fast and get the wind blowing in our faces.”

Friday’s humid, hot weather--a souvenir of the now-dissipated Hurricane Estelle--produced temperatures of 91 degrees in downtown Los Angeles and health advisories in smoggy parts of the San Fernando, San Gabriel and Santa Clarita valleys.

Weather forecasters said the heat will probably ease up slightly today and Sunday. But the uncomfortably high humidity is likely to continue through the middle of next week, fed by two new hurricanes, meteorologist Stephen Burback of WeatherData Inc. said.

Organizers of the Transplant Games said the UCLA-based competition is designed to highlight the success of organ and tissue transplantation and the critical need for increased organ donations.

The four-day event was planned months ago, long before the unusual series of Pacific hurricanes began forming off the Baja coast. Los Angeles was picked because it is a good summertime vacation destination for families attending the games, spokeswoman Cynthia Wolkovich said.

The heat was no sweat for many of the athletes, however.

“This would be a nice day back home,” said Alma Keys, who traveled from Cherry Hill, N.J., to watch her 64-year-old husband, Bill, compete in swimming and track events. He received a transplanted heart in 1990.

“It was 97 degrees and about 95% humidity when we left. A storm came up that was so terrible that our plane was delayed on the runway an hour and 45 minutes.”

Liver transplant recipient Sandra Cressman, 34, of Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto, stood under an umbrella shaped like a huge Canadian baseball cap as she waited for her softball-throw event. The eye-catching umbrella was for show, not for shade.

“It’s so my uncle can spot us,” she said. “Oh, this weather’s great. We’ve had a really cold summer, 67 or 68 degrees, back home. It’s been terrible.”

Kidney recipient Liz Giardina, 26, of Dallas said she was enjoying the sunshine as she awaited her turn in the 100-meter dash. “Smog? I’ve heard about it. But I haven’t noticed it,” she said, looking around. “Is it here?”

Golfer David Newton, 33, of Kansas City, Mo., was keeping cool under a snappy white Panama hat as he teed off at the Encino course. “Heat? What heat? This ain’t heat where I come from,” he laughed.

Medics standing by at a makeshift Transplant Games first aid station said they remained idle during the hottest hours of the day Friday.

Doctors said that exercise is a part of the recovery process for transplantation patients and that all those competing have healed well from their life-extending surgeries.