'Freaky Death' Personified? Lady Doctor Killed on Frankenstein Cliff Trail
In a particularly strange and cruel turn of events in the lives of a close-knit New England family, a 57-year-old Massachusetts physician was killed in a freak hiking accident just two days before last Christmas.
According to New Hampshire police, Doctor Judith Pinsker, who had worked as a primary care MD at Tufts Medical Center in Boston for nearly 20 years, died after she was struck on the top of her head by a large sheath of falling ice, while walking on an snow-covered trail in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
The tragedy happened on Sunday morning, December 23, as the Pinsker family - her husband Doctor Benjamin Smith, 2 sons and a group of family friends - made their way along the appallingly named pathway called Frankenstein Cliff Trail. A responding rescue team initiated lifesaving measures before transporting her down the mountain on a stretcher to the closest emergency room - Memorial Hospital in the town of North Conway, where she died.
According to rescuer Joe Klementovich, Doctor Pinsker suffered lethal head injuries and severe blood loss. He said unseasonably warm temperatures during the week before Christmas was the most probable cause of the chunks of ice above the hikers to collapse.
Rescuers, family members & friends escort the unconscious doctor away from Frankenstein Trail
Doctor Judith Pinsker, who lived in Wellesley Massachusetts, is survived by her husband and the couple's two adult sons, Eric and Jeffrey.
At Tufts Medical Center the administration released a statement that Doctor Judith Pinsker was a “thoughtful, compassionate and meticulous caregiver who treated hundreds of patients with kindness and expertise."
Here's another look at this very sad case: