Avoiding Amputation And Walking | A Peer Reviewed Extreme Limb Salvage Case

One year ago, Mama Joyce was facing an above-knee amputation after peripheral artery disease had progressed to its most advanced stage, chronic limb-threatening ischemia, or CLTI.

Her daughter, Jae, called the Global PAD Association's Leg Saver Hotline looking for one more chance. We helped facilitate Mama Joyce's transfer to an advanced multidisciplinary limb salvage team with the experience, tools, and techniques needed to take another look.

Today, Mama Joyce is not only standing on that leg. She is walk, walk, walking!

Now, her extraordinary journey has been documented in a peer-reviewed case report published in Vascular Disease Management by HMP Global. I am deeply honored to be a co-author alongside Dr. David Allie, Dr. Kerry Thibodeaux, and Dr. Amit Amin.

Dr. John Phillips and I welcome Mama Joyce andher daughter Jae back to The Heart of Innovation one year after we first shared their story. We talk about the fight to get another set of eyes on her case, the imaging and advanced revascularization that helped restore blood flow, the multidisciplinary wound care that followed, and the determination of a patient and daughter who refused to give up hope.

We also discuss why this publication matters. This is the first peer-reviewed case report we have co-authored documenting the role patient advocacy can play in helping someone facing amputation reach an experienced limb salvage team.

Mama Joyce's outcome cannot be promised for every patient. But her story is a powerful reminder of why patients should understand their diagnosis, ask whether all appropriate imaging and treatment options have been explored, and seek an urgent second opinion from an experienced limb salvage specialist when time and their medical condition allow.

Read the peer-reviewed case report:

https://www.hmpgloballearningnetwork.com/site/vdm/case-report/extreme-limb-salvage-facilitated-patient-advocacy-multidisciplinary-care-and

Watch our original conversation with Mama Joyce and Jae:

https://www.youtube.com/live/2f95s6hZKsQ?si=62VmoO8gqs8AUTOz

Facing an amputation or being told there are no other options?