'Climate change' diagnosis reflects latest trend in health care - NBC News

Because Merritt noted in the woman's medical chart that climate change was responsible for bringing her to the hospital, many inside and outside the profession perceived it as a first-of-its-kind diagnosis.

“I think that we’ve learned that climate change is essentially required in order for it to get that hot where we live,” Merritt said in a recent interview. “Without the heat, she would not have been admitted to hospital. So I thought it was accurate.”

The U.N. World Health Organization estimates 150,000 deaths a year are caused by climate change, a topic of discussion among world leaders, scientists and others last month at the U.N. Climate Change summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

The conference coincided with the first public mention of Merritt’s diagnosis in a news release about a rally the physician-activist group Doctors for Planetary Health was planning in Victoria, British Columbia. A second rally was held in Nelson, Merritt’s hometown.

Merritt, a member of the group, was interviewed by Canadian TV networks and Yahoo News, drawing international attention, including in Glasgow.

Summit attendee Dr. Jay Lemery, an emergency medicine physician and co-founder of the climate health program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said he was struck by Merritt’s boldness.

“It’s a provocative action, but certainly the science is there to substantiate it,” said Lemery, who’s focused on bringing “climate and health data to the bedside.”

Merritt, whose patient was successfully treated, unaware that her diagnosis had drawn headlines worldwide, said he received some negative phone calls and emails for treating climate change “as a real thing,” but most of the reaction has been positive.

He said he isn't aware of any other doctor making such a diagnosis, but he feels certain that others have made the connection between climate change and a person's health.

“It’s clear to me this could not be the first patient where a doctor considered climate change as an underlying factor,” he said.

Dr. Linda Thyer, an emergency medicine and family doctor in Vancouver, B.C., and a founding member of Doctors for Planetary Health, organized the rally in Victoria, to coincide with Glasgow and to capture the attention of lawmakers.

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