Fort Collins woman donates amputated leg to search and rescue: 'Take my leg, I'm done with it.'

Sady Swanson | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption Fort Collins climber talks about donating leg to search and rescue Fort Collins climber Tracy Hickey donated her amputated leg to search and rescue to help with training purposes.

After her leg was amputated in June 2017, Tracy Duncan-Hickey said she experienced phantom pain for a while after her surgery.

“The first month my toes were freezing,” Duncan-Hickey said. “And I jokingly said, ‘Well, it’s because my foot’s in a freezer! They are freezing.' ”

Rather than have her amputated leg incinerated at the hospital, Duncan-Hickey decided to donate her limb to a search and rescue group so they could use it to train search dogs.

“Sure, take my leg," she said. "You can have it, I’m done with it.”

In a climbing accident in May 2016, 58-year-old Duncan-Hickey shattered her talus — which she said has the smallest blood supply in the entire body, so it doesn't heal very well. The talus is the large bone in the ankle that articulates with the tibia in the leg and other bones in the foot.

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Big players in the Northern Colorado climbing community, Duncan-Hickey and her husband used to own and operate Inner Strength Rock before it closed in 2017.

She had been climbing for 29 years when the accident happened while she was climbing Devil's Tower in Wyoming for her 56th birthday.

“Human error, I let go of my break hand,” Duncan-Hickey said. “I just remember hearing the rope … running through the belay device.”

Initial surgery put two screws and four pins in her ankle. In April 2017, her doctor said her bone was showing signs of necrosis, or bone death, and she was suffering with chronic pain. Her options: bone fusion or amputation.

“The first thing I would think in morning when I woke up before I got out of bed was, ‘I wonder how much it’s going to hurt today,' " she said. "And that is no way to live.”

A fusion would mean continued limited mobility and future surgeries, but a prosthetist told her she could be back to 95 percent of her activity level if she amputated her leg.

“It was kind of a no-brainer at that point,” Duncan-Hickey said. “For me, not being able to hike, walk the dog with my husband, bike, ski climb — that wasn’t living.”

Flash-forward to a few days before her surgery that June, Duncan-Hickey said she posted something mentioning her amputation on Facebook. That's when she heard from Lisa Peretti Bishop, her husband's high school friend.

A K9 specialist with Northwest Disaster Search Dogs based in Seattle, Peretti Bishop sent her a message asking if, instead of her limb being incinerated at the hospital, she would consider donating it to a search and rescue group.

Duncan-Hickey's response was an enthusiastic "absolutely."

Peretti Bishop said search and rescue groups need body parts to help train dog teams. Limbs, which are the most helpful for training, are often difficult to obtain.

“Using body parts is a huge part of our training for our cadaver dogs,” she said.

They get a lot of placentas, she said, but placenta has a different scent and also starts to decompose after a few months, at which point the dogs are only smelling blood instead of tissue.

“Placentas are good for blood source training, but it’s those body parts that are pretty amazing for us to use,” Peretti Bishop said.

Training with the larger body parts also helps the dogs get used to the sight and stronger smell, Peretti Bishop said. Otherwise, seeing or smelling it for the first time "could scare them because the scent is overwhelming."

“If donating my limb can help someone else get closure because their loved one's body was found, then absolutely," Duncan-Hickey said. "There’s no question. Why would I not donate?”

In training, K9 handlers will usually hide the cadaver part under rocks or rubble and work with the dogs to find it. The dogs will signal by either laying down next to it or barking, depending on how they are trained, according to Rod Tyus, task force leader with the Colorado FEMA Task Force, which received Duncan-Hickey's leg.

Because getting a limb donation is so rare, Tyus said they will use a donated cadaver appendage in training several times.

“We’d be lucky if it’s once every few years” that they get a donated limb, he said.

Duncan-Hickey said it was a little challenging to figure out how to donate her leg since her surgeon and the hospital told her they had never had anyone ask that before.

She suggested to her doctor and prosthetist that they have brochures or some information on how to donate body parts to search and rescue, but they all said most people aren't ready to talk about that while going through amputation.

“It’s frustrating because how else do you get the word out?” Duncan-Hickey said.

The best way to find out more on donating a body part to search and rescue is to simply reach out to your local search and rescue organization, Peretti Bishop said.

“If they would like to see something positive come out of their amputation, then consider donating the limb,” she added.

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While she recognized the decision to amputate is often emotional and difficult, Duncan-Hickey said she felt like the choice was easier for her than most.

“The pain was not a choice,” she said. “I was not going to continue on like that.”

And one month after her amputation in June 2017, she was able to climb indoors.

Duncan-Hickey has climbed a little outdoors — though she still struggles with trauma from her accident — and she's gone on short hikes.

“Do I have any regrets doing it? Not one. Do I wish I’d done it sooner? Probably.

“I’ve always had a positive attitude toward it. I think it makes a huge difference,” she said. “Would I rather not be an amputee? Absolutely. … But it’s not the worst thing in the world.”

Duncan-Hickey said she is invited to and plans to watch the dogs train using her amputated leg with the Colorado FEMA Task Force.

“I’m just hoping the dog doesn’t sniff me, then bring the leg to me," she said.

Reporter Sady Swanson covers breaking news for the Coloradoan. Follow her on Twitter: @sadyswan.

Interested in learning more about limb or body part donation? Contact your local search and rescue group: