Frostbite amputations in Edmonton more than double last winter than any in past decade

The number of frostbite amputations in Edmonton spiked last winter to more than the previous three years combined, and more than double any other year over the past decade. The data—which CBC News obtained from Alberta Health Services (AHS) via a freedom of information request—are broken down by fiscal year, from April to March. This means each year of data includes one full winter season, the report noted. During the fiscal year of 2021-22, there was a surge in frostbite amputations in both Edmonton and Calgary. In Edmonton that year, there were 91 amputations, more than any other year since at least 2011, sometimes by a factor of three or four, according to the report. In Calgary, there were 65 amputations, up from 19 the previous year. Although last winter was colder than average, other winters since 2011 were even colder and yet saw little or no increase in amputations, the report noted. What made last winter different was the sharp increase in the number of homeless people. “I think you can draw a straight line between our housing crisis and these outcomes,” Dr. Sandy Dong, an emergency physician who has practiced in Alberta for two decades, told CBC News. The data do not specify which demographics received the amputations. But Dr. Dong said that in his experience, nearly all of the patients are homeless. “The vast, vast majority of these individuals were unhoused. I can think of one person of those, I’m going to say, scores, that had a permanent address,” he said. CBC News noted in its report that it asked AHS in November how many amputations there have been in Edmonton due to frostbite. A senior AHS communications advisor responded they didn’t have the information. A freedom of information requested revealed that AHS does, in fact, track this data. AHS did not explain to CBC News why the communications advisor had claimed the opposite. In a statement provided to CBC News, AHS said the increase in frostbite amputations was “due to a number of factors, likely including higher numbers of unhoused homeless during a harsh winter." “Increased numbers of overdoses attributable to the fentanyl crisis during the past three to four years have also contributed to higher numbers of individuals suffering frostbite." “While not all homeless are unhoused during the cold winter months, many struggle with multiple issues including mental health, addictions, and general health problems. Barriers to accessing community and health supports, especially during the pandemic, were also compounding factors that may have contributed to higher incidents of frostbite-related amputations.” The report explained that according to advocates and experts, a housing-first approach—giving people a safe environment to live in first and foremost, without requiring them to deal with their addictions or mental health beforehand—lowers the many risks people without housing face, such as frostbite. “Housing could fix that immediately,” Scarlet Bjornson, communications coordinator at the Bissell Centre, a homeless shelter in Edmonton, told CBC News. “If people had housing, they could have the harm to their person reduced.” Before the pandemic, the number of people experiencing homelessness in Edmonton decreased steadily for years by as much as 40%, the report noted. Damian Collins, a professor and housing expert at the University of Alberta, said the current problem in the province is two-fold: insufficient government funding for housing, and the general unaffordability of market housing. “We did adopt housing-first and we did fund programs,” Collins said. “But we didn’t do the other side of the coin, which is build the social and affordable units that are necessary to address the more systematic problems in the housing market. “The alternative, I guess, is a system that relies on shelters and policing, and that’s what we are seeing a lot of in Edmonton right now.”

Frostbite amputations in Edmonton more than double last winter than any in past decade

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