Some Chiefs fans had amputations after frigid playoff game, hospital confirms

Rhiannon Walker
Updated

Kansas City Chiefs fans were among the 12 people who required amputations due to frostbite, Research Medical Center said in a statement Friday.

While the Kansas City hospital didn't provide an exact figure for how many people who attended the Jan. 13 wild-card game against the Miami Dolphins needed the surgical procedure, it did acknowledge that fans were part of its current total.

RMC also said it expects that number to grow as the "injuries evolve" over the next two-to-four weeks.

Frostbite victims, including Chiefs fans, were also admitted and treated at the University of Kansas hospital, but no amputations were reported.

FILE - A gauge displays the temperature on the field at Arrowhead Stadium during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, Jan. 13, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. Some of the people who attended the near-record cold Chiefs playoff game in January had to undergo amputations, a Missouri hospital said Friday, March 8, 2024. Research Medical Center didn’t provide exact numbers but said in a statement Friday that some of the 12 people who had to undergo amputations after the cold snap had been at the game. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
Some of the people who attended the near-record cold Chiefs playoff game in January had to undergo amputations, a Missouri hospital said Friday. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Kansas City experienced a brutal 11-day cold front, and RMC said in its statement that it has primarily amputated fingers and toes in the aftermath.

When the Chiefs played the Dolphins in the wild-card game, they did so in the coldest game ever played at Arrowhead Stadium. When the game kicked off, it was minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of minus-27.

That easily broke the record of the previous coldest game played in the stadium — a 1983 game against the Denver Broncos and Kansas City's matchup against the Tennessee Titans in 2016.

The coldest game in NFL history still remains the historic Ice Bowl, when the Dallas Cowboys faced the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field. The 1967 NFL championship was played in minus-13 Fahrenheit weather and a minus-48 wind chill.

Kansas City defeated Miami 26-7 on the way to its second consecutive Super Bowl victory and third in five years.

Advertisement