Docs amputate man's foot on train tracks

MEDICS YESTERDAY were forced to amputate a man's foot after it became trapped under a freight train while he was laying on the railroad tracks in Northeast Philly.

It was unclear last night why the man was on the tracks.

But at about 3 a.m., his foot got caught underneath the wheel of an oncoming CSX freight train near Grant Avenue and Welsh Road in Bustleton, police said. To free him, two doctors from Einstein Medical Center in Olney crawled underneath one of the train's locomotives, which CSX contractors partially lifted using heavy machinery, said CSX spokesman Rob Doolittle.

There, Dr. Melissa Kohn said she and another doctor - identified by 6ABC as Dr. Megan Stobart-Gallagher - used tools to cut through the man's bone after giving him pain medication.

On-scene amputations are rare, but Kohn said the man could only be freed by amputating his foot just above the ankle.

"It was a little difficult, but we did have a tourniquet on his leg to make it not as messy," she said.

Once free, the man was transported to Aria Health's Torresdale Hospital, where he remained in critical condition last night, police said. His identity was not released.

Doolittle said the train crew saw the man on the tracks before hitting him, but didn't have time to stop. The train, which was headed to New Jersey, hit the man on a mostly tree-lined stretch of the tracks behind a storage unit facility.

Neither Doolittle nor Kohn knew why he was on the tracks.

"We just knew we had to get him out," Kohn said.