Coordinated Treatment Saves Patient from Double Amputation

For several years, Cynthia Martin, 54, had been working as a federal police officer in Southern Maryland. When the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily shut down most industries in March 2020, she found herself far less active than usual.

 In January 2021, she noticed a sore on her left heel that wasn’t going away. She tried nursing it herself with over-the-counter ointments and medicines, but nothing worked.

Over the course of 2021, Cynthia saw multiple specialists, including a podiatrist, wound care specialist and vascular surgeon. All agreed she had poor blood flow in her left leg, but they couldn’t seem to find a treatment that helped. She underwent stent placement to open her blocked arteries and improve blood flow in her leg, but it wasn’t long until she noticed a new sore on her other heel.

After another stenting procedure in her right leg and complications with her left stent, she was feeling defeated. “I had an angiogram with a vascular specialist, and the doctor told me he couldn’t do anything,” she said. “He told me the only thing we could do was amputate both legs.”

Seeking options to avoid amputation

Cynthia wanted to do everything she could to avoid amputation. A second specialist recommended debridement, which could only occur if she stopped taking blood thinners, which were necessary to prevent blood clots following her stenting procedures.

Cynthia was frustrated. The sores on her heels made it nearly impossible for her to move without pain. “How am I going to get better if these doctors won’t even treat me?” she wondered. In a moment of desperation, she searched online for “wound care in Virginia” and scheduled an appointment at one of the Inova Wound Healing Centers.

Cynthia met with Lonnie Fontana, PA-C, who evaluated her and agreed that her sores were likely the result of a blood flow problem and diabetes. She immediately scheduled Cynthia to be evaluated by a vascular surgeon at the Inova Vascular – Fairfax office.

Focus on limb preservation offers hope

For patients at high risk of amputation, Inova’s vascular surgeons and wound healing specialists work together to offer specialized wound treatments, endovascular procedures and vascular surgeries.

“Once I was at Inova, they said they were going to do everything they could to save my legs,” Cynthia said. It gave her hope for the first time that her condition might improve.

Advanced wound treatment was initiated, and Cynthia was also seen by Dipankar Mukherjee, MD, Chief of Vascular Surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital, who determined she needed bypass surgery in her left leg. The bypass rerouted blood flow around her blocked arteries and improved her symptoms nearly immediately. Inova’s wound specialists then worked for several months to save both of her legs. Treatments included care such as skin substitutes with living cells and a special boot to remove pressure from her foot. Cynthia’s diabetic sores on the left foot healed. However, the sores on Cynthia’s right foot worsened, and the team sprang into action to coordinate a timely intervention.

In April 2022, bypass surgery was performed on Cynthia’s right leg and treatment using advanced wound care continued. Today, all her sores have fully healed, and she is back on her feet. Cynthia is in physical therapy to increase her strength after spending so much of the last two years immobile, and she’s grateful every day that she still can walk at all.

“The wound healing and limb preservation team at Inova changed my life. If I hadn’t sought their opinion, I would have lost my legs – and that would have been absolutely devastating.” ~ Cynthia Martin

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