Topics: NFL, Football, Kansas City Chiefs, Weather, Health
Dedicated football fans may have gone on to regret attending one of the coldest games played in NFL history after some people ended up with frostbite.
In January, Kansas City Chiefs went head-to-head against Miami Dolphins at Arrowhead Stadium where fans and footballers alike were met with harrowingly cold weather conditions.
Reports say that temperatures plummeted to minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 20 Celsius) during the January 13 game - with a windchill of minus 27 degrees F - making it the coldest game to have ever been hosted at the Kansas City stadium.
Advert
The game came at the same time as an 11-day cold snap in the region, which saw dozens of people hospitalized.
Now, a hospital has confirmed that 12 people have since received amputations because of the severe frostbite they suffered as a result of the cold weather - some of which were football fans who were attended the January 13 game.
Most of the surgeries involved the removal of fingers or toes.
Research Medical Center didn't confirm how many of the 12 patients were at the stadium, however.
As people's injuries 'evolve', the hospital added that it expects to conduct more surgeries over the coming weeks.
On the day of the game in January, Kansas City Fire Department (KCFD) had to set up field aid stations in the parking lot to deal with the influx of calls they'd received.
According to ABC News, KCPD had 69 calls from people both inside and outside the stadium - with many of the calls being hypothermia-related.
"We set up four field aid stations throughout the parking lot and…either someone flagged us down or we were sent by our operations to locate those individuals in their seats," a spokesperson told the news outlet at the time.
Dr. Megan Garcia, the medical director of the Grossman Burn Center at Research, explained that frostbite can occur on exposed skin for up to 30 minutes - but this timing can be shorter if there's a windchill.
Elsewhere, hypothermia happens when body begins to lose heat faster than it is produced, resulting in a lower than normal body temperature.
While the cold day in January was one for the history books, it isn't the coldest NFL game on record.
The 1967 NFL championship takes the title for the coldest game in NFL history when the Packers beat the Cowboys at Lambeau Field in minus-13F (minus-25C) temperatures.
Anyone else feeling cold just thinking about it?
