The first time Dr. Peter Hackett saw a patient with frostbite, the man died from his wounds. Dr. Hackett later worked at Mount Everest Basecamp, on Denali, Alaska, and now in Colorado, becoming expert in treating cold-weather injury. His mentor in Anchorage used to say, “Frostbite January, Amputation July,” remembered Dr. Hackett, clinical professor at the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. “For centuries, there was nothing else to do.”This month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first therapy for treatment of severe frostbite in the country. The drug, iloprost, is given intravenously for several hours a day over a little more than week.

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Persons: Peter Hackett, Hackett, Mount Everest Basecamp, ” Organizations: Mount Everest, Altitude, University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical, Food and Drug Administration Locations: Chicago, Denali , Alaska, Colorado, Anchorage