Finger Frostbite Amputation Photographs

I lived on the street for twenty-five years and never had a serious health issue, even though I slept outdoors under a tarp through every imaginable weather.  But, I got caught in a canyon downslope wind storm that resembled wind storms recorded in the death zone on K2.*  My hands turned blue, but I thought if I warmed them up, they would recover.  Next morning I had blisters, I thought I had second-degree frostbite.  Instead of recovering from a moderate frostbite, my hands died from blood clots.  Apparently, the body will reduce the blood flow to the extremities in order to protect the vital organs in the core during life-threatening wind chill events.  I should have gone straight to the hospital.  Maybe Dr. Amalia Cochran could have saved my digits.  After all, Dr. Amalia Cochran pioneered the use of blood thinners in severe frostbite cases to save fingers and toes with remarkable success rates.  I was blessed with one of the best frostbite experts in the country as my doctor, and all she could do was cut off all of my fingers.

The dynamic duo.

Amalia Cochran MD 

Katherine Elizabeth Smiley MD

If you need an excellent surgeon, (or two) look no further than this blog post.  Fortunately for me, both of these accomplished ladies were working together at the University of Utah hospital intensive care burn unit.

This is no longer the case, however.  Dr. Cochran is now off to Bozeman, Montana!   Dr. Smiley has a private practice as an allopathic trauma surgeon in Bloomington, Indiana.

Ha!  Look at your flowery hat, Amalia!  But because I am a sixties counterculture guy, you can wear tye-dye day glow in surgery for all I care!  I don't place a priority on being a misogynist when facing certain death.  I can't understand gifted feminists and their persecution complexes.

I don't think these ladies are iron maidens who have to maintain a facade of inflexible super-rationality because some idiot invented a notion that women go mad every twenty-eight days.  Therefore, women can't be trusted with the nuclear football.  But we don't live in the world of Betty Friedan and the Feminine Mystique, or in the world of Father Knows Best anymore.  1950's retro thinking is so cliche.  I was so thankful for these women surgeons, and for my free clinic doctor Tanya Williams MD who got me admitted into the hospital.  Superior intelligence, skills, and empathy.  Who cares what sex they are, or what they wear at work.

I needed great surgeons, not a militant Gloria Steinem manning the barricades.  I was lucky to receive such awesome care at the University of Utah burn center.  Amalia Cochran is a universally recognized expert in frostbite, with a slew of medical journal publications. And Dr. Amalia Cochran has published a book on introductory surgery.  Dr. Kate Smiley graduated from medical school with honors! and she has a very successful practice that is based upon a diversity of medical experiences!

I may be thick, but I know good health care professionals when I see them.


* When the Wasatch mountains experience conditions that generate easterly winds, gravity straight line winds may occur with speeds exceeding 100mph.  These straight line winds historically have caused considerable personal and property damage.