Remember the Buffalo man who made headlines when a Good Samaritan saved him during the city’s deadly Christmas Eve blizzard? According to the NYPost, the mentally disturbed man from Buffalo, who goes by Joey White, has lost all his fingers to frostbite.
Joey, 64, underwent numerous surgeries to treat his severe fourth-degree frostbite, but medical professionals could not save his fingers, kin informed CBS News.
“He was so frozen,” Sha’Kyra Aughtry, 35, the Good Samaritan who found Joey on her doorstep and brought him inside, informed the news outlet last week. “He had ice, literally ice balls around his hand,” she said.
Surgeons were ultimately forced to remove nearly all of Joey’s fingers, including his knuckles. He has one thumb remaining, his sister, Yvonne White, said.
“Joey has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and lives in a group home several blocks away from Aughtry’s house.”
That morning, Joey apparently got scared during the treacherous winter storm, which was ravaging Western New York and ultimately left over 30 people dead. He walked over to a nearby movie theater, where he worked as a custodian for over 40 years, but got caught in the cold when he was headed home.
It’s unclear how long Joey was stuck outside before he ended up on Sha’Kyra’s doorstep.
Sha’Kyra was on her couch inside her Thatcher Avenue home when she heard banging and cries for help outside and told her boyfriend to open the door.
“I told my boyfriend Trent, hey, there is a guy outside. We gotta bring him in,” but she said he wasn’t on board immediately.
“He went outside and had a hard time bringing him indoors because the man was nearly frozen, “Ice balls was on his hands. He was like frozen, his pants were frozen, his shoes were frozen.”
The situation moved Sha’Kyra to tears, as it was eerily reminiscent of when her brother, Darryal Aughtry, 30, crawled to her doorstep after being shot almost four years ago, Sha’Kyra’s sister Angela informed the Post last month.
“She was like, ‘You know, that’s like the equivalent to our brother passing away’ — she can’t have that happen again,” Angela, 32, said of Sha’Kyra’s interaction with Joey.
“[Sha’Kyra] said everything got replayed. … How she heard [Joey] crying outside the door, and she couldn’t leave him out there because the same thing happened to our brother.”
“She said if Joey was left out there any longer, he could have froze to death,” Angela said.
After nursing him and bandaging Joey’s severely frostbitten hands, Sha’Kyra called 911 repeatedly, but terrible weather conditions made it impossible for first responders to get to them.
As a result, Joey spent Christmas Day with Sha’Kyra. By night, the Buffalo mom was in panic mode. She posted to social media requesting someone to help them get Joey to the hospital. 36 hours later, they made it to the ER, where Joey underwent numerous surgeries.
Yvonne White said the actions Sha’Kyra and her boyfriend took saved Joey’s life.
“I feel that especially nowadays, the way our country is … everything is just, you know, the weather is terrible. This is terrible,” Yvonne informed CBS. “And then to see the compassion and the love with two strangers … is just amazing.”
We wish Joey a quick recovery, and we’ll keep you updated on his condition.
