Medicine: Frostbite, Amputation

At first, her mere survival was enough to make medical history of the case of Dorothy Mae (“Johnny”) Stevens, who was found chilled (body temperature: 64°) in a Chicago alley last month (TIME, Feb. 19). For a while her doctors even dared to hope that she might recover completely. Last week, however, they discovered that poisons from dead tissue in Johnny’s legs were being absorbed into her bloodstream. They watched carefully for two more days, then amputated both of her legs nine inches below the knees. There was a chance that several of her fingertips might have to go the same way.