Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, December 6, 2011
Sports Alaskan Doctors Amputate Kenyan Runner's Feet
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 8:58 AM
Marko Cheseto, the All-American runner from UAA who suffered severe frostbite during a two-day disappearance earlier this month, has had both feet amputated, the university's athletic director said Monday.Pieces of this runner's story are missing. Did he disappear on purpose? Was he depressed? Was it the short days? The long nights? Was it a woman? He was so far away from home....Cheseto disappeared on Sunday evening, Nov. 6, wearing jeans, running shoes and a light jacket — no gloves, no hat, no boots, no cellphone. It snowed more than a foot while he was missing and temperatures dropped into single digits.
Then, at about 3 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, he was found wandering outside a hotel near the university. The night manager at the SpringHill Suites said paramedics who responded to the hotel's 911 call were unable to remove Cheseto's shoes because they were frozen to his feet.
Thanks goes to Carole Triem, an Alaskan, for the tip.
3
I bet it was all of the above. Since he was at UAA to run, I wonder if he'll stay in Alaska now that his feet are gone.
5
Speaking as an Alaskan expat now living in the tropical PCNW, a LOT of people go to alaska completely unprepared to experience the arctic. Things like this happen shockingly more than you might think. 'It's going to get so cold so suddenly, your feet will freeze into your shoes' is no bullshit. Even in anchorage (which is pretty balmy by Alaskan standards) people suffer accidental severe frostbite all the time by walking around in sub zero temps wearing nothing but running shoes.
7
I guess one of his teammates committed suicide, and some people are speculating that he was upset about that.
According to the NY Daily News, he was "distraught over a 'personal crisis' when he fled":
New York Daily News
According to the NY Daily News, he was "distraught over a 'personal crisis' when he fled":
New York Daily News
8
@5 - do you find that in AK the locals respect the climate, and it's really only the newcomers that end up getting fucked like that? what i find here in MN is that there's this completely stupid notion that "i'm from MN! i'm tough! i can take the cold!" which leads people to walk around in tennis shoes and only a t-shirt under a windbreaker when it's 20 degrees out. it's certainly not arctic cold most of the time, though we usually do have an arctic snap at least a couple of times per wintern. i'm always amazed at how these idiots think that because they have a new car and a cell phone there will be no consequences to their high-heeled feet when they get in an accident and have to wait 2 hours for a tow truck.
9
No, negative, there aren't pieces of the story missing, the fellow was simply either not too experienced, or not very intelligent.
Ask any experienced distance runner how many times he or she has witnessed someone not preparing adequately, weather-wise and in other ways, for a long run.
Evidently, this fellow just wasn't mindful or aware of the WX conditions, and subsequently suffered from hypothermia and dehydration (always exascerbated by colder wx).
Back in the early '80s, I was truly annoyed and irritated, when two young female airheads had to have the fire dept. called in Rockville, Maryland during Christmas shopping that December.
They had an auto problem, hadn't bothered to dress for the wx as they thought they could hop in their heated auto, go into a heated store, then bebop back to their heated auto, and return home.
They, too, suffered from cold wx conditions, and had major problems with it.
And why was I annoyed and irritated? Because their excuse was: "We're from Seattle!"
Give me a frigging break..........
http://wikileaks.org/The-Spyfiles
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/a…
Ask any experienced distance runner how many times he or she has witnessed someone not preparing adequately, weather-wise and in other ways, for a long run.
Evidently, this fellow just wasn't mindful or aware of the WX conditions, and subsequently suffered from hypothermia and dehydration (always exascerbated by colder wx).
Back in the early '80s, I was truly annoyed and irritated, when two young female airheads had to have the fire dept. called in Rockville, Maryland during Christmas shopping that December.
They had an auto problem, hadn't bothered to dress for the wx as they thought they could hop in their heated auto, go into a heated store, then bebop back to their heated auto, and return home.
They, too, suffered from cold wx conditions, and had major problems with it.
And why was I annoyed and irritated? Because their excuse was: "We're from Seattle!"
Give me a frigging break..........
http://wikileaks.org/The-Spyfiles
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/a…
10
A former coworker went to college with this guy and ran with him back in the day, so I was hearing about this story from the day he first went missing. I since stopped working there, so I haven't been getting updates since a few days after he turned up alive.
From what I've heard, they hadn't (at that time) determined the reason for his disappearance, and everything about it was uncharacteristic of this guy. They say he would know how to dress for the weather, he wouldn't have just gone for a run in the middle of the night, and, since drugs were under suspicion, my coworker insisted that this guy would be absolutely the last athlete to take drugs.
From what I've heard, they hadn't (at that time) determined the reason for his disappearance, and everything about it was uncharacteristic of this guy. They say he would know how to dress for the weather, he wouldn't have just gone for a run in the middle of the night, and, since drugs were under suspicion, my coworker insisted that this guy would be absolutely the last athlete to take drugs.
11
@8 Yes! I find that. Same thing in Southeast Alaska with the rain. If you want to wear a cotton sweatshirt when it's pissing down rain, be my guest. I'm going to stay dry and warm and use an umbrella in addition to my rain coat and boots.
12
Charles, how about you do your fucking job and find the answers, if you're so interested in this non-news story? Or are you just the resident navel-gazer for The Stranger?
13
@12 - From what I've heard from sources close to the man who just lost his feet (see @10), the information isn't there. So how about you go fuck your fucking self and die in a fire.
14
That you are at least four levels removed from any pertinence to this story matters not one whit, MacCrocodile. But if you feel it necessary to build up your own sense of self worth and importance by trying to inject yourself into the story, go right ahead and indulge yourself.
What I'm asking is that Mudede do presumably what he's paid to do, rather than posing those questions to the ether of the internet. He's not a goddamn blogger in his mother's basement without means or access; he works for a newspaper, and once upon a time, journalists actually investigated stories before presenting them, rather than just saying, "Stuff happened in some place at some point," which is essentially what he's doing here.
This happened a month ago, so the only real reason to mention it now would be if he had something new to report, which he doesn't.
What I'm asking is that Mudede do presumably what he's paid to do, rather than posing those questions to the ether of the internet. He's not a goddamn blogger in his mother's basement without means or access; he works for a newspaper, and once upon a time, journalists actually investigated stories before presenting them, rather than just saying, "Stuff happened in some place at some point," which is essentially what he's doing here.
This happened a month ago, so the only real reason to mention it now would be if he had something new to report, which he doesn't.
16
Allow me to clarify a bit.
It seems like the only thing I ever see you do in here is yell at someone for not being a journalist to your standards. If that's what you want, don't read Slog; you should know that by now. You're just being a dick (or a masochist) at this point. Go somewhere else if you want journalism.
This is Slog; this is the kind of thing Mudede posts all the time. Did it ever occur to you that his purpose in posting this was not to keep you up to date with the latest news of the day but rather to wonder idly about something where the information is not readily available? He probably has other things to write about, so calling up Anchorage and asking the guy who runs the phone there if he's heard anything may simply be more effort than he has time for right now. Or maybe he just doesn't care that much, but wonders why the news story he cites doesn't say any of those things.
Or whatever. Fine. Mudede is a hack, and he'll never be the next Bob Woodward without your constant hectoring.
It seems like the only thing I ever see you do in here is yell at someone for not being a journalist to your standards. If that's what you want, don't read Slog; you should know that by now. You're just being a dick (or a masochist) at this point. Go somewhere else if you want journalism.
This is Slog; this is the kind of thing Mudede posts all the time. Did it ever occur to you that his purpose in posting this was not to keep you up to date with the latest news of the day but rather to wonder idly about something where the information is not readily available? He probably has other things to write about, so calling up Anchorage and asking the guy who runs the phone there if he's heard anything may simply be more effort than he has time for right now. Or maybe he just doesn't care that much, but wonders why the news story he cites doesn't say any of those things.
Or whatever. Fine. Mudede is a hack, and he'll never be the next Bob Woodward without your constant hectoring.
17
Marco has been a good friend of my family's since he came up to Anchorage. He's spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with us for the past two years. Marco is an amazing individual. There was no alcohol or drugs involved in his disappearance. We may never know the reason for him leaving other than it being very personal. Please show some respect for him and discuss what you know and not hear say. To you he may be someone you read about, to me he is a brother.
18
@15:
It's not a new thing if it happened 2 weeks ago. Granted, the surgery happened two weeks ago and I was referring to his initial disappearance which was a month ago, but the point still stands.
@16: You know that the blue, underlined text showing a person's name is a link that takes you to that person's posting history, right? If you really care enough to know why Mudede annoys me so much, you can read back through my posts. You'll be digging for a while.
Yeah, I think Mudede is a hack, and I'm by no means the only one. Hell, he's all but admitted that he's a troll, what with SLOG being is his "tickle machine." If there were such an add-on that I could download so my browser wouldn't display his posts, I'd install it. It'd probably be better for my blood pressure, since clearly I can't help but feed that troll. But if by "hectoring" him more you think I can make him into the next Bob Woodward, maybe I shouldn't...? Or I could just go after him with the ad hominem attacks as you have against me. They must be effective or you wouldn't be employing them so constantly, right?
If you think I'm being insensitive to what happened to Marko Cheseto, I suppose that's a fair accusation. That wasn't the intent, but I guess I can see where that might come from, given my earlier post. Of course I think it's a tragedy that he had to have his feet amputated; it's even more heartbreaking in his case because he is a runner and because he's so young. I think you're transferring my criticism of Mudede somehow onto Cheseto, and that's where your ire is really coming from. Not me calling Mudede as a hack journalist (again). And until you're better able to deal with this tragedy that befell someone who was a friend from years ago to a former coworker of yours, a coworker that you didn't know well enough to keep up with since you left that job, maybe you should avoid reading anything about him for now, until you've fully processed this. Or reading anything on the Internet, for that matter, as you apparently can't bear to read criticism about other people without losing your cool, and that's pretty prevalent on the internet.
Presumably, by the time you've gotten through this, I'll have stopped fucking my fucking self long enough that I'll be reading SLOG again, and I'll see that you've left me another post here letting me know you're okay and we can both get on with our lives. Hopefully that will be before I finish the first task you've set for me and I move on to the second.
More...
Published: November 22nd, 2011 08:16 AM
Last Modified: November 23rd, 2011 07:59 AM
It's not a new thing if it happened 2 weeks ago. Granted, the surgery happened two weeks ago and I was referring to his initial disappearance which was a month ago, but the point still stands.
@16: You know that the blue, underlined text showing a person's name is a link that takes you to that person's posting history, right? If you really care enough to know why Mudede annoys me so much, you can read back through my posts. You'll be digging for a while.
Yeah, I think Mudede is a hack, and I'm by no means the only one. Hell, he's all but admitted that he's a troll, what with SLOG being is his "tickle machine." If there were such an add-on that I could download so my browser wouldn't display his posts, I'd install it. It'd probably be better for my blood pressure, since clearly I can't help but feed that troll. But if by "hectoring" him more you think I can make him into the next Bob Woodward, maybe I shouldn't...? Or I could just go after him with the ad hominem attacks as you have against me. They must be effective or you wouldn't be employing them so constantly, right?
If you think I'm being insensitive to what happened to Marko Cheseto, I suppose that's a fair accusation. That wasn't the intent, but I guess I can see where that might come from, given my earlier post. Of course I think it's a tragedy that he had to have his feet amputated; it's even more heartbreaking in his case because he is a runner and because he's so young. I think you're transferring my criticism of Mudede somehow onto Cheseto, and that's where your ire is really coming from. Not me calling Mudede as a hack journalist (again). And until you're better able to deal with this tragedy that befell someone who was a friend from years ago to a former coworker of yours, a coworker that you didn't know well enough to keep up with since you left that job, maybe you should avoid reading anything about him for now, until you've fully processed this. Or reading anything on the Internet, for that matter, as you apparently can't bear to read criticism about other people without losing your cool, and that's pretty prevalent on the internet.
Presumably, by the time you've gotten through this, I'll have stopped fucking my fucking self long enough that I'll be reading SLOG again, and I'll see that you've left me another post here letting me know you're okay and we can both get on with our lives. Hopefully that will be before I finish the first task you've set for me and I move on to the second.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
Hating People Doesn't Make Them Thinner by Jen Graves
-
Los Angeles Gay Bar Bans Bachelorette Parties Until Marriage Equality Is Attained by David Schmader
-
Fill in the Blank by Grant Brissey
-
This Reminds Me of the Great Calculator Scare of the Late '70s/Early '80s by David Schmader
-
Idiot Tries to Defend Bigoted Anti-Gay-Marriage Preacher on Anderson Cooper by Paul Constant
-
The Sunday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
Six Moms with Too Much Time on Their Hands and a Shitty Website Decide to Fight Gay Superheroes by Paul Constant
-
What the Hell Is Wrong With Seattle's Pride Parade? by Dominic Holden
-
The Saturday Morning News by Unpaid Intern
-
Why Mayor McGinn's Wife Canceled Her Family's Seattle Times Subscription by Eli Sanders
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (18) RSS