GURNEY, Wis. — The UW Health surgeon believed to have died in a fall when the ground gave way from under her while hiking alone in northern Wisconsin last month is being remembered as a “bright light” and “deeply valued member” of the medical system.
A post on the University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery’s website Thursday described Dr. Kelsey Musgrove, 30, of Middleton, as “a bright light who impacted all those whose lives she touched with her incredibly kind spirit.”
Searchers found Musgrove’s body near the Potato River Falls in Iron County late Sunday morning. She had been reported missing on March 30, four days after she had last been heard from.
The Iron County Sheriff’s Office said Musgrove appeared to have left a trail to get closer to the river, at which point the ground gave way under her and sent her falling. Her body was found partially buried in a clay bank.
An autopsy found she likely died within minutes of the fall, the sheriff’s office said.
Musgrove started a cardiothoracic fellowship at UW last August and was “held in the highest esteem by her colleagues for her incisive intelligence and surgical excellence,” the post said.
“Close friends and passing colleagues alike regarded her as a rising star with unbridled potential,” it added.
Before joining UW, Musgrove earned her medical degree at the Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami and had her residency at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
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