Don't let frostbite ruin the Chiefs' Wild Card game

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Five to 15 minutes is all the time it takes for an unexposed area of the body to suffer from frostbite tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium.

The risk is that part of your body will have to be amputated, but there are additional concerns that can linger a lot longer than the emotions from the Chiefs playoff game against the Miami Dolphins.

Evan Harter lost all of his toes to frostbite a decade ago, while walking a mile in Kansas City when it was freezing outside. Harter estimated he was outside for 40 to 50 minutes, and that the temperature was slightly warmer than the forecasted game time temperature.

The layers and types of warm clothes a Chiefs’ fan wears to the game is important.

“I changed all of my clothes, my hoodie, pants, all that, but I didn’t change my socks out, and then it was the next morning when I woke up, I couldn’t feel my feet,” Harter said. “They were purple.”

The issues from the frostbite Harter experienced continues to be an ongoing challenge, even a decade later.

St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Physician Dr. Mark Larsen explained that frostbite can set in quicker for children and seniors, but no one is immune from the risks over the weekend if your skin is exposed to the elements.

“Frostbite is gonna be hard for you to specifically notice on somebody else, but it’s going to be paid, tingling, or what we call paresthesia – inability to move those digits,” Larsen said. “Sometimes (the skin) will be very pale, sometimes even getting blue or black, depending on the severity of the symptoms.”

The difficulty is that if fans are drinking alcohol during the tailgate before the game, they may miss some of those symptoms.

“If you do feel like you have been exposed, you do have frostbite – the very first thing you do is you come in and (see a doctor),” Larsen said.

Wearing layers of clothes are important. Wool socks or something that wicks away water is also important.

“If you do feel like you have been exposed, you do have frostbite – the very first thing you do is you come in and (see a doctor),” Larsen said. “I’m gonna put you in a warm bath, I’m going to try and warm up those toes, those digits, and warm up to stop that freezing process. The unfortunate part is, once that damage is done, there’s nothing that I’m gonna be able to do that is going to reverse it immediately. You really have to wait for that damage to kind of prove itself and see what happens down the road. So we will typically have people following up with plastic surgeons or hand surgeons or orthopedic surgeons to see how severe that damage ends up being in the long run. But unfortunately, once that damage takes place, rewarming the digits up is the most that I am able to offer.”

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