‘Worst pain of my life’: Local man shares cautionary tale of frostbite
WARNING: THIS REPORT INCLUDES GRAPHIC IMAGES OF FROSTBITE INJURIES AND AMPUTATION.
PARKVILLE, Mo. (KCTV) - Evan Harter is a hearty guy, but he gets pain sometimes because of something he did 11 years ago on a cold night in Plattsburg, Missouri.
“We were at the wake of a classmate of mine,” Harter recalled. “It was December 23rd, 2013, and it was icy out.”
He was 21. He thought it best not to drive back to his mom’s house, so he took off walking. He estimates it took him 30 to 45 minutes to make the mile to mile and a half walk. He had a coat and gloves on but he was wearing dress shoes and dress socks. The risk of frostbite never crossed his mind.
“I’ve hunted my whole life,” Harter said. “I’ve been out in the elements. It’s nothing I would have thought about.”
He got home and crashed with his socks still on. He didn’t notice anything wrong until the morning.
“I got out of bed and it felt like I was walking like with bricks on my feet,” Harter described. “Then I took my socks off and (my feet) were purple.”
He went to Liberty Hospital. They sent him to the University of Kansas Hospital’s Burnett Burn Center. He had more than a dozen treatments over three months that were so painful that he had to be sedated. On February 14, 2014 he had all ten of his toes amputated. He shared gruesome before and after photos because he wants people to take notice and understand the risk is real.
“I’ve been through a lot of hard things in life, but I would say it’s top tier as far as one of the hardest things,” Harter said. “It’s always going. It’s a never ending process.”
All these years later, at the age of 32, he gets hip pain or back pain if he’s not very careful about controlling his gait walking without toes. He gets married next month. He’ll be wearing compression socks under his tuxedo as he does daily, because his legs swell often, much like those who have diabetes.
“It’s very damaging, very dangerous and I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through,” Harter said.
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