Shawn Austin clutched the St. Christopher medal he wears around his neck as he trudged on foot through deep snow in whiteout conditions Sunday night.
Austin was on his way to Calhan from work at the Olive Garden in Colorado Springs, where he is a cook, when his Jeep got stuck in a snowdrift, just a half-mile from his home.
Because he had jogged the distance before, 26-year-old Austin believed he could make it home without too much trouble, despite the howling wind and snow.
He never thought the 20 minutes he spent outside could give him frostbite in his hands and fingers or put him in a hyperbaric chamber at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Medical Center.
The hyperbaric chamber – more commonly used to treat carbon-monoxide poisoning – provides Austin with extra oxygen in a pressurized chamber to improve blood flow to his hand tissues.
While Austin is in danger of losing a finger and may have lifelong problems using his hand, Dr. Bill Clem, Austin’s physician at St. Luke’s, said the prognosis is hopeful.
“I think he will live to cook again,” Clem said.
During Austin’s treacherous walk, he fell several times in the snow and used his hands to get back up. He wasn’t wearing gloves, just boots, a coat and a hat.
“I got to a point where I wouldn’t take my hands out of my pocket, but I had no choice but to keep going,” Austin said Tuesday from his hospital bed.
Austin made a cellphone call to his mother, Laura Schutts, and told her where he was. She drove her truck outside to meet him at the end of the driveway just in case he had trouble.
“My heart was in my stomach because I could hear him, but I could not see him,” Schutts said about searching for her son. “I thought I was about to lose a child.”
She found Austin and put him in the truck and drove him the rest of the way home. She warmed him up, and he got into a bath to raise his body temperature.
By 7 a.m., a helicopter was on its way to fly him to the hospital in Denver after he discovered his hands covered in blisters.
Austin wants his injury to be a warning to people who think they are just making a quick trip to the store or from the car to the house in severe weather.
“Anyone can get into this situation,” Austin said. “I was just a half-mile from home. It can happen really quick.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
