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Defying an Achilles Heel Hiker and author doesn’t let botched surgery steal her passion By Bridgette M. Redman o Giese isn’t about to let anything stop her from engaging in her favorite pastime —hiking to waterfalls — not even the loss of her Achilles tendon. A local hiker, author, journalist and community activist, Giese has great advice for hikers on the Westside, though she warned that with the drought, few waterfalls can be found in Southern California right now. She has been hiking for 40 plus years and particularly loves hiking to waterfalls. She has logged more than 40 of them in 10 different countries. Some of Giese’s most passionate hikes include a helicopter hike in New Zealand to Spectacular Falls, trekking behind a waterfall in Iceland at Seljalandsfoss, and visiting such falls as Snoqualmie Falls near Seattle, and Halfmoon Falls and Grotto Falls in Montana. Giese is also working on a book called “Keep Hiking to Waterfalls: A Medical Mystery” that tells how a freak accident nearly ended her ambulatory life. She braids chapters about her walks to waterfalls with the medical story of her multiple surgeries.
PHOTO BY DANA FINEMAN
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Accident claimed Achilles tendon It started in 2018 when Giese was in her home office on a rare rainy November day in Southern California. Her friend arrived a little bit earlier than expected and Giese raced downstairs to answer the door so her friend wouldn’t have to wait in the rain. She missed the bottom two steps and went flying horizontally. When she tried to get up, she couldn’t. Giese’s husband, Ed Warren, and her friend drove her to urgent care. The doctor did X-rays and informed her that she had a complete rupture and was going to need surgery. She immediately called an orthopedic doctor she knew, who told her to come in first thing at 8 a.m. the next day. She arrived in a wheelchair and
Hiker, author, journalist and community activist Jo Giese is working on a book, “Keep Hiking to Waterfalls: A Medical Mystery,” that recounts a freak accident she had that nearly ended her hiking adventures.
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met with the orthopedic doctor, who had treated her before when she had a tear in her knee and he knew that she and her husband were hikers. “There are two approaches,” Giese recalled he told her. “One is do nothing, but that’s for people who are sedentary. That’s not for you. The other is to reattach it and that’s what you want. I used to do Achilles reattachment surgeries 20 to 30 years ago, I can do this.” This, Giese said, was when she and her husband made a really bad error. “We think we’re pretty smart,” Giese said. “My husband is one of those whip-smart appellate lawyers who has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. I’ve written prize-winning books and written for NPR. But instead of questioning him, I thought, ‘Well, he says he can do it.’” Giese said she was so relieved that she didn’t think to get a second or third opinion, or to find someone with more recent experience. The consultation was Friday morning and the doctor told her that he could do the surgery first thing on Monday. She went in for the surgery to reattach her Achilles tendon and came out with a cast from her foot to her knee. Ten days later when she returned to his office to remove the bandage, what she saw was unexpected. The entire area had turned necrotic and died. “I don’t think I even knew the word ‘necrotic’ before then,” Giese said. “It wasn’t part of my vocabulary, but it became a part really quickly.” The doctor sent Giese to a wound doctor to try to get the necrosis out so they could deal with the Achilles tendon. She ended up having eight surgeries. The third surgery was with a trauma wound plastic surgeon. He had tried to clean the wound manually, but it hurt her too much. He said they’d go in and clean the area surgically and then the first surgeon who did the surgery would reattach the Achilles tendon as the second
