Warning: Graphic images
An Australian woman has revealed the horrific case of frostbite she suffered after passing out on a night out in Canada and falling asleep on the street.
Emma Quirk, who posted a full gallery of her injuries on Imgur, went out and about after moving to Saskatchewan in December.
The New South Wales native, who has also spoken to Mashable, explained that the above picture is the last one of her before she went out for a cigarette at around 2.30am.
The background is basically I got way too wastey-pants one night in a new town in Saskatchewan... trying to make some friends and settle in.
I was blackout drunk by midnight, with no phone, no money and no idea where I was and I couldn't find my way home.
Quirk was found at around 5.45am "in a ball trying to sleep". She was subsequently taken to hospital (suffering from moderate hyposthermia and frostbite) where this picture was taken:
She was then told by a nurse that the best case scenario was that she would keep her fingers, the worst case was that she would lose her hands.
"High off my tits on morphine, still pretty drunk and alone in another country getting that nice little tidbit of information was pretty f*ing terrifying," she explains.
At this point we reiterate our warning about graphic images
Over the next few days she was treated by "some f*ing insanely cool nurses and doctors" and her specialist had a particularly apt name: Dr Freezin. He explained that frostbite is mostly a waiting game and Quirk was explicitly told not to pop the blisters even though the pain at this point was "verging on unbearable".
See?
This is what Quirk's hands looked like after Dr Freezin had been at them with a scalpel:
Quirk explains on Imgur that she is now recovering well and can use her hands again, however, Dr Freezin is worried that the tip of her middle finger and the little finger on her left hand may not make it. She says she should find out in June.
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