Last week, two legs of a homeless man were amputated in Eindhoven on the cold night of Wednesday to Thursday. Studio040 reports this. The man had been showing care-avoiding behavior for some time, which caused his health to be poor. The cold came on top of that and it almost killed him, a well-informed source reports to the regional broadcaster.
The man was eventually picked up by ambulance and taken to hospital, but his lower legs could not be saved. It is not known how he is doing now.
“Sleeping outside below -5 degrees is irresponsible.”
Eindhoven street doctor Peter Meulensteen already warned last week Studio040 for the dangers of the freezing cold for the homeless. According to him, at around -5 degrees it is no longer responsible to let people sleep outside. “If someone is left lying on the street, they sometimes don’t make it through the morning.”
From his practice, Meulensteen helps the homeless with a team of street doctors. During the winter months he sees many infections, skin problems and inflammations. “Homeless people often take poor care of themselves, especially if they have addiction or psychological problems,” he says. “The cold also makes everything worse.”
“Foreign homeless people cannot find shelter locations.”
According to the street doctor, most vulnerable groups are asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies and labor migrants who have ended up on the streets after seasonal work, often from Eastern Europe. “This group has difficulty finding shelter and sleeps outside for lack of another option. And even though there are sometimes extra shelter places available, they often do not know where to find those locations. They do not know the city enough and do not speak Dutch.”