No medical qualifications, just a friend who is susceptible to keloid scars.
Unlike other scars, keloids continue to grow over time.
So it could have been a fairly inconsequential injury which may have allowed him to return to duty within a month! This would put at least two of the assumptions of the author of this thread in doubt. (1)The photo was early and (2) Rev. Alston would not have recovered rapidly enough to be in action in February or late January.
[Moore's screed should have been examined so carefully by the press! :]
Moreover, black people are far more prone to developing chronic keloids than are persons of other races. They can be very persistent and disfiguring, growing slowly over many years. Surgery may actually make the condition worse.
-ccm