Some Chiefs fans who attended bitter cold playoff game now require amputations: hospital
The January playoff game was the fourth-coldest in NFL history, with wind gusts causing a wind chill of minus-27 degrees.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — Multiple people who experienced frostbite while attending a bitter cold Kansas City Chiefs playoff game in January may require amputations, a hospital official told Nexstar's WDAF this week.
It was minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit in Kansas City during the wild-card playoff game against the Miami Dolphins, with wind gusts up to 27 mph making for a wind chill of minus-27 degrees. It was the fourth coldest game in NFL history and the coldest in Chiefs franchise history.
A day after the game, a Kansas City Fire Department spokesperson said approximately half of the 69 calls they responded to during the game were hypothermia-related. Three people were transported for frostbite, but authorities weren't able to say how many people sought care at the stadium's first aid stadium or on their own after the game.
Dr. Megan Garcia, the medical director at the Grossman Burn Center at Research Medical Center, however, shed some light on the lasting impacts some of those football fans are experiencing.
Garcia was in attendance as burn survivors gathered at Research Medical Center for a second annual reunion Tuesday evening. But the burn center is now dealing with injuries from far different weather conditions.
"People think of burns, they think of fire, they think of hot thermal injuries. But burns can happen from many different causes," Garcia explained.
Garcia told WDAF in January she had seen dozens of frostbite patients as the state saw multiple days of frigid cold temperatures. Many of those were Chiefs fans who attended the playoff game against the Dolphins.
HCA Midwest Health shared images of the hand of one of those fans, who reportedly took his gloves off for just five minutes in order to put up a tent in the parking lot outside Arrowhead Stadium.
"The patients who had their frostbite injuries along with the Chiefs game, they are just getting to the point now we are starting to discuss their amputations that might be necessary," Garcia said Tuesday, explaining that 70% of the patients referred for frostbite injuries suffered earlier this year are now being advised to schedule amputations.
The estimated 30% lucky enough to avoid amputation after undergoing treatment the past few weeks in hyperbaric oxygen tanks will have plenty of reminders of their frostbite injuries.
"It's still a lifelong process. They'll have sensitivity and pain for the rest of their lives and always will be more susceptible to frostbite in the future. So we are also educating them to make sure they stay warm for the years and months to come," Garcia said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.