U Of M-Duluth Student With Severe Frostbite Heads Home

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The University of Minnesota-Duluth student found unconscious in extreme cold temperatures is now recovering at home, according to her CaringBridge page.

Alyssa Jo Lommel has been in the hospital since the incident happened in December.

In January, Teri Lommel wrote on her daughter's CaringBridge website that she lost only the tips of her toes on one foot, which should help with balance and walking, and the other foot was amputated just below the ball of the foot. Surgeons also removed skin and tissue from Alyssa Lommel's heels at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, her mother said.

On Tuesday, her mother wrote that they were able to go home to continue recovery, with visits from a home health care nurse.

She said her daughter is "doing well walking on her own, but still not as steady as she needs to be without someone there."

Lommel was taken to Regions Hospital in St. Paul after being diagnosed with hypothermia and severe frostbite.

Police said Lommel, a sophomore from St. Cloud, had been out drinking with friends on Dec. 6 and was dropped off at her Duluth house around midnight. A passer-by spotted Lommel on the front stoop of the house next door about nine hours later. The temperature had dropped to 17 degrees below zero that night.