Canadian Woman Could Be World's First Patient To Be Diagnosed Suffering From 'Climate Change'

The elderly woman lives in a trailer, with no air conditioning which worsened her condition further according to the doctor who treated her, said her condition started to worsen after the heatwave. 

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New Delhi: A Canadian woman could be the first to be diagnosed with "climate change" after she was brought to the emergency room for acute breathing problems in the British Columbia province.

The elderly woman has an underlying condition of asthma, but the doctors who examined her said heatwaves and poor air quality are to be blamed for her health condition. The Times Colonist, a Canadian daily reported one of the consulting doctors, Dr Kyle Merritt, said this was the first time in over a decade he used the phrase climate change while writing the patient's diagnosis. 

Canada saw one of the worst heatwaves ever in June, which according to reports has killed at least 500 people. It was soon followed by wildfires leading to smog-filled skies deteriorating the weather further. The air quality worsened over 40 times more than what is normally acceptable for the next 2-3 months, reports say.

The woman is in her 70s, lives in a trailer, with no air conditioning which worsened her condition further. According to Merritt her condition started to worsen after the heatwave. 

“She has diabetes. She has some heart failure. She lives in a trailer with no air conditioning. All of her health problems have been worsened. And she’s really struggling to stay hydrated", Dr Merritt was quoted as saying.

According to media reports, Dr Merritt says that there is a strong need to find an underlying cause and not just treat the symptoms of the patients. 

The annual Lancet countdown study has found that more Canadians than ever before are facing serious health risks due to the heatwaves and wildfires. The heatwave lasted several weeks and it was followed by the town in British Columbia being destroyed by a fire.

The study also found the heatwaves to have caused 570 deaths in Canada and hundreds more in the US.

Clinicians in Nelson following the diagnosis launched Doctors and Nurses for Planetary Health, an initiative of about 40 healthcare professionals “working to better human health by protecting the planet,” according to the group’s Twitter page.

“I don’t think people realize the impacts of environmental degradation and climate change on human health,” Merritt told the local British Columbia news outlet Castlegar News during a climate action demonstration last week. “Working with patients directly, we are actually starting to see the health effects of climate change now. It’s not just something that is going to happen in the future.”