After the severe
cold Monday night left him with blistered, swollen hands that cut off his circulation
and left him feeling ready to “explode,” Louis Rash, 30, of Penn Hills, started
Wednesday with a positive report at the
UPMC Mercy Burn Center: His fingers may
not require amputation after all.
“Doing better,” Rash said afterward, his hands still wrapped
in gauze and gloves from ointment and treatments in which pus-filled blisters
were removed. In fact, his left thumb was freed from gauze and appeared to
return to normal. “They were white-and-greenish looking. Not good."
Rash said doctors warned him that the frostbite on his hands would get worse before it got better and he said they were right. “But the surgeon said they may be able to
release me in a day or so. And after some of the swelling went down and they
cut some of the sores on my fingers . . .they may not have to amputate,” Rash said Wednesday. He’s
scheduled Friday to return to the Burn Center for hydrotherapy – a steady
stream of water washing away the burned, dead skin – “and they’ll see the extent
of the damage, and go from there.”
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Nine of Louis Rash’s fingers are bathed in ointment and wrapped
in gauze and gloves to promote healing of his frostbite from Jan. 6.
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Rash was one of five frostbite patients for whom
UPMC
hospitals cared during the record-setting cold front that brought wind chills
of more than 20-below Monday night through early Wednesday. Two frostbite patients were admitted
to UPMC Mercy, Western Pennsylvania’s only Level 1 Trauma and Burn center, in
the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
One of them was Rash, a Mississippi native
who left that state barely four months ago to move in with family in the
Pittsburgh area and work as a customer sales representative. Around dinnertime Monday, he was brushing snow and ice off
his vehicle and waiting to get the car’s battery jumped when his glove-less
hands were exposed in temperatures recorded near -4 in Pittsburgh. This being
his first Northeast winter, he admittedly underestimated the
weather.
Rash returned home and placed his numb hands under warm water,
which he later learned was an issue – it’s recommended, when possible, to ramp
up gradually from cold to warm. While he watched the Florida State-Auburn
college football championship game, the pain and swelling worsened, and a trip
to UPMC St. Margaret lead to him being directed to UPMC Mercy’s burn
center.
“When it first happened, I was thinking that (the swelling) would go down and it wouldn’t be as bad,” Rash said. “When I went to the
hospital and saw my fingers the next day, there was anxiety. I’m thinking the
worst … amputation. I don’t play the piano.” He laughed. “But I don’t want to
lose my fingers.”
His advice: Beware of any temperature below freezing,
especially the wind chill. And “at the least, wear gloves.”
Labels: UPMC Mercy Trauma and Burn Center, winter weather