A BC Woman Was Diagnosed With Suffering From 'Climate Change' & It Could Be A World First

Smoke from wildfire season had worsened her medical condition, a doctor said.

A BC Woman Was Diagnosed With Suffering From 'Climate Change' & It Could Be A World First
Ricky Deacon | Dreamstime, Edgar Bullon | Dreamstime
Western Canada Editor

A B.C. woman in her 70s has been diagnosed as suffering from "climate change," according to a report.

The woman was diagnosed during the extreme heat and wildfires the province experienced in late June when she entered the ER department at Kootenay Lake Hospital in Nelson struggling to breathe.

"She has diabetes. She has some heart failure. ... She lives in a trailer, no air conditioning. All of her health problems have all been worsened. And she's really struggling to stay hydrated," Dr. Kyle Merrit, head of the ER department, told Stefan Labbé of North Shore News.

North Shore News reported that Merritt wrote the words "climate change" on the woman's patient chart — the first time he had done this in his 10 years as a physician.

He said he knew that wildfire smoke, which had plagued much of the province for several days, had exacerbated the woman's asthma.

Data released by the BC Coroners Service on November 1 said that 595 people died in B.C. during the extreme heat wave over the summer.

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  • Daniel Milligan
    Western Canada Editor Daniel Milligan was the Western Canada Editor at Narcity Canada. He was responsible for developing trending news strategies and managing a team of writers and editors. Originally from the U.K., Daniel holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in journalism from Staffordshire University. Over the past decade, he has worked on major news stories including terror attacks in London, England, and Manchester, along with royal weddings, Brexit developments, the Canadian federal election and the Nova Scotia mass shooting. Daniel was a senior editor and newsroom leader at Trinity Mirror, one of the U.K.'s largest regional news websites. He would later move to Toronto and work at Yahoo Canada and CTV News/CTV National News.

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