Life on the streets finally caught up to Willie Moore.

The 52-year-old homeless man, who was a fixture last year as a sidewalk chess player on Massachusetts Street, was put in check this winter by a case of frostbite.

Now Moore is in Lawrence Memorial Hospital recovering from surgery. Most of his right foot was amputated along with three toes on his left foot.

“It’s been a rough haul,” Moore said recently from his bed at LMH.

Moore said he didn’t realize anything was seriously wrong with his feet until a day in early January when he was at the Community Drop-In Center, a service center for the homeless at 10th and Kentucky streets. His feet were tingling, so he sat down and pulled off a shoe and a sock.

“The toe of my sock was red,” Moore said. “One of the guys said, ‘Man, your feet are bleeding. You need to go to the emergency room.'”

Moore was admitted to LMH Jan. 8.

Doctors tried to save Moore’s foot and toes by scraping and cleaning the tissue, but a few days later they had to go ahead with the amputation, said Dr. Shari Quick, his primary care physician, though several other doctors have been involved with his care. There have been a couple of minor surgeries as well.

Moore says he also has other physical problems that have bothered him for a long time. He has arthritis and bad circulation in his feet and legs, he said. He often runs a temperature and has had infections.

Willie Moore waits in the physical therapy room at Lawrence Memorial Hospital on Tuesday. He had a bad case of frostbite that led doctors to amputate most of his right foot and three toes from his left.

“What’s so sad about Willie’s case is he is such a neat person and there have been so many health issues,” Quick said. “No matter what I tell him — things that would get other people down — he just takes it all in stride. I’m sure that is how he has been able to get by on the streets.”

Life on the streets

More than a year ago Moore and a friend hopped aboard a train in Albuquerque thinking it would take them east. They ended up in cold and snowy Denver and then rode east into Nebraska, where they disembarked at North Platte.

“We rode in the back of the train and we had our sleeping bags, but it was still cold,” Moore said. “I didn’t know how cold my feet was. I couldn’t feel them half the time anyway because I have bad arteries in my legs.”

Moore said he eventually got help obtaining a bus ticket to Lawrence.

Chess 24/7 at 10th & Mass (10-11-04)

Moore spent most of last year in Lawrence, hanging out at the corner of 10th and Massachusetts streets. He and a friend, Sherman Talbert, also known as Sly, were often seen playing chess on the sidewalk, and they were featured in an Oct. 10, 2004, Journal-World story. Sly had taught Willie how to play chess when both were serving time in the Lansing Correctional Facility.

In November and December when the weather became colder, Moore said, he sometimes stayed nights at the Salvation Army, 946 N.H., or the Lawrence Open Shelter, 10th and Kentucky streets. Other nights he found a place to sleep out of the wind next to one of the downtown churches.

“I had my sleeping bag and about 12 blankets,” Moore said. “I was warm, but I couldn’t tell if my feet was cold. I started noticing a pain around my toes just before Christmas. I thought I had athlete’s feet because I didn’t see anything.”

Recovery issues

In addition to treatment for his health problems, Moore is undergoing physical therapy and learning how to use a walker. Yet Quick doesn’t know when Moore will be healthy enough to be dismissed from the hospital. He will get the care he needs at the hospital regardless of whether he has the money or insurance to pay for it, she said.

But Quick is concerned about what happens to Moore after his hospital stay. He will need follow-up care, rehabilitation and the ability to get to that care. He also will need special shoes, she said.

“The question is: ‘Where does he go?'” Quick said. “He can’t go back to the streets.”

Donovan Lee, a social worker in the Acute Rehabilitation Unit at LMH, is trying to answer those questions. One possibility is that Moore would stay with a daughter in Osawatomie. But that has yet to be determined. Moore said he has two brothers in Lawrence, but he doesn’t think it would be a good idea to move in with them.

Lee has helped Moore apply for Medicaid and other assistance programs that would pay for a temporary stay in skilled nursing centers and for his medication after his hospital release. The applications are still pending.

The main challenge is seeing that Moore has a smooth transition to a path that meets his recovery and ongoing medical needs, Lee said.

“Clearly, being back out on the streets and in shelters is not a good idea because of the risk of infection,” Lee said. “And trying to get around in the community would be a potential nightmare.”

‘I’m lucky’

Moore thinks he might have lost a leg if he had not gone to the hospital when he did.

“I’m lucky,” he said. “I’m fortunate to be here. The people here have been very good to me. They have been trying to help me figure out what is going on.”

Moore’s friend, Sly, has visited him a few times, but they have not played chess, he said. Moore does, however, have a chess set near his bed.

“I set it up and mess around with it sometimes,” he said.

When he leaves the hospital Moore said hoped he wouldn’t have to go back to the streets.

“I just want to get situated and get a little place,” he said. “I don’t really need a lot of room. There ain’t a lot I can do.”