The doctor who diagnosed former congressional candidate Gary Dodds at the hospital in 2006 testified yesterday that Dodds didn't have frostbite.

David Heller of Portsmouth Regional Hospital said he was expecting a very hypothermic patient with frostbite when he heard about Dodds' car crash and daylong disappearance with searchers finding him in the woods, but that wasn't the case, he said.

With frostbite, there would likely be discoloration and blisters because of exposure to temperatures below freezing, he said. Dodds feet had discoloration but no blisters, Heller testified.

Heller said Dodds' injuries were more consistent with his feet being exposed to water for a long period of time, not necessarily to the elements.

Dodds had told Heller he was up to his head in water and almost drowned before collapsing in the woods.

"I was surprised he had a normal core body temperature," Heller said. "I would've expected someone that had been soaked that time of year would've been more hypothermic."

Heller noted that other tests showed no major brain trauma to Dodds, just some swelling to the left temple area outside of the brain.

Defense Attorney J.P. Nadeau claims Dodds suffered a concussion after the crash and became disoriented, causing him to have trouble remembering what happened.

Dodds, 43, of is accused of faking his own disappearance following the crash on Spaulding Turnpike. Prosecutors claim it was an attempt to gain publicity for his floundering campaign and that he falsified the details of his situation to make his story more believable.

Dodds faces charges of falsifying physical evidence, conduct after an accident and causing a false public alarm.

Portsmouth Regional Hospital neurologist Karen Lauze examined Dodds the day after he was rescued from the woods. She noted he had a bump on his head.

Lauze interviewed Dodds about what happened to him the night of the crash and testified he told he swerved off the road and crashed, the airbags went off, and then smelling smoke, fled the car. After that his recollection was foggy, but he did remember being in water up to his chest, lying down in the woods and covering himself with leaves, she said.

Though it is not unusual for people to suffer from memory loss after being hit in the head, Dodds description of his memory loss was "suspicious," she said.

"You normally don't remember things right before or right after the head injury and I thought that was unusual," she said. "Short-term memory is something you have for several seconds in a state of the brain that's not solid. Short term memory takes a few minutes to go into long-term memory."

Lauze said typically, "after you hit your head you just don't remember hitting your head."