She lost her hands and feet to frostbite, but this Sask. woman calls her amputations a 'blessing'

Patricia Beston-Fayant says people sometimes look at her strangely when she tells them she's grateful her hands and feet were amputated.

That loss, she says, brought back something she chased for 10 years without success — sobriety.

"I haven't been this happy in so long. So if this is how I have to be happy, then I don't really care really, because at least I'm still alive," she said with a smile.

Her family calls her survival a miracle, after she was exposed to Saskatchewan's brutal December cold for days with no shelter.

She's one of a growing number of Saskatchewan people who have had frostbite amputations in the last two years — something advocates say could be driven by an opioid crisis and homelessness.

Beston-Fayant has faced both herself.

She first started experimenting with drugs at 18, beginning with cocaine, hydromorphone and oxycodone, and then moving to fentanyl and crystal methamphetamine. Her mother struggled to support her daughter through her addiction.

"I always would pop in there all messed up on drugs and just wasn't healthy for my kid and my mom at the time, so they moved to Calgary, and then my safe haven was gone. I had nowhere to go."

Hitting rock bottom

In late 2021, the winter after her mother left, Beston-Fayant was deep in her addictions, homeless and suffering dope sickness.

She believes it was Dec. 22, 2021, when she went to look for a friend to help her get some drugs, even though wind chill made it feel somewhere in the –40 range at the time, she said.

"It was damn cold, I remember that," she said. "I crawled over … [my friend's] balcony, waiting for her, and that's where I fell asleep."

Beston-Fayant passed out wearing just a coat and steel-toe boots. She remembers waking up days after that — on Christmas Day — still on the balcony, freezing.

With some effort, she started kicking the balcony and yelling — catching the attention of a passerby who called an ambulance.

"All I remember is them pulling me up and cutting my clothes off, and then I woke up after my coma."

Beston-Fayant's grandmother was called to the hospital while she was there.

It had been months since Ruth Fayant had seen her granddaughter. She and her husband had distanced themselves so as not to feed Beston-Fayant's addictions.

"That's when I decided tough love had to step in," Fayant said. "But we prayed all the time that she would open her eyes and come back to us."

When Beston-Fayant did wake up from her coma, she initially had no idea of the extent of her injuries. Her feet and hands were black and rock-hard from the exposure to the brutal cold.

She could only think of getting drugs after she woke up, she said — even when doctors told her they would have to amputate.

"I was thinking at the same time, 'Now I can't do drugs, so what am I gonna do?'"

But then she realized she might be facing the radical change she needed to get free of the addiction that had plagued her.

"It was a blessing in disguise, because I wanted to get sober for so, so long."

More frostbite amputations in past 2 years

The number of amputations in the province due to frostbite climbed in the last two years, according to data from the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

From 2012 to 2020, there were on average about four frostbite amputations a year, the data shows. But that increased to 13 in 2021 and 18 in 2022.

The health authority says the data doesn't provide context on what might lead to differences year to year, such as weather, economic conditions, social supports or the pandemic.

But Dr. Alex Wong, an infectious diseases physician in Regina, says there could be a few factors.

"The fentanyl piece is probably the piece that's driving this more than anything," he said, noting the entire country is facing an overdose crisis.

"We're seeing, unfortunately, more of these severe outcomes where people develop bad cold-induced sort of damage and frostbite, and it's devastating."

An increase in homelessness, which some advocates have tied in part to changes to the Saskatchewan Income Support program, is also driving more people into the cold and risky outcomes, said Wong.

Both he and Beston-Fayant say supervised drug consumption sites would help with harm reduction.

"I think it would be just safer altogether in the city, for the addicts and for the non-addicts," said Beston-Fayant. "Less deaths too."

A recovery journey

Beston-Fayant is grateful she's not one of those deaths. She's thrown herself into her recovery, learning to move quickly on her prosthetic legs and becoming adept at using her stumps to do everything from opening doors to grabbing a cup.

When her mother and children came to visit her last March, she realized how much is still ahead of her.

"That's probably when I realized I got a second chance at life and I'm gonna do it right," she said.

She hopes to reunite permanently with her children, but also to use her voice to advocate for others who are dealing with homelessness and addiction.

Fayant describes her granddaughter as a marvel who has overcome the odds.

They may have lost 10 years together, she said, but now they have the opportunity to make up for that lost time.

"I'm just proud of her — so proud of her. She's my girl."