A migrant worker had both legs amputated after being found with frostbite on the streets of Coleraine, Co Derry, on New Year's Day.
The young Ukrainian woman had been sleeping rough in sub-zero temperatures when an ambulance crew rushed her to hospital to be treated for hypothermia.
It is understood she had been living in the open air close to vacant houses since being laid off from her job just before Christmas. Only once the freezing conditions became unbearable did she seek help from other immigrants. They immediately called for medical help, and she was taken to the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine before being transferred to Belfast, where surgeons amputated both legs.
Trauma counsellors have been brought in to help her and interpreters are communicating with her about her ordeal.
East Derry MP Mr Gregory Campbell has demanded a full inquiry.
Mr Patrick Yu, director of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, claimed fear and isolation would compound her agony. "This woman would have no family or local community to fall back on."
PSNI detectives yesterday received clearance to interview her. They attempted to piece together her movements over the past two months.
Social services are trying to make contact with a number of Polish people they believe shared accommodation with the woman in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, until they were all made redundant.
Employment records for the woman, whose permit does not expire until later this year, only cover up to the end of October.
The woman is understood to have given details on her family back in the Ukraine.
They do not have a telephone, but a letter has been sent to her mother in the aftermath of her operation.