This image is horrific and I thought more than twice about using it, but I think it is critical for everyone to understand the stakes in this discussion. Every case of gangrene, every amputation is a failure. It may be a patient failure to find a primary care doctor and have their sugar and blood pressure measured. They may not know they are at risk. If the health system did the right thing and helped the patient understand her disease, developed a long-term supportive relationship, and provided optimal medical therapy and support for the patient at risk, failure is on the patient. More frequently, the patient does not get that level of care and it is on the provider system.
This comment is from Dr. Mary O'Connor previously head of Orthopedics at Yale and founder of Vori Health
Bill,
If you care to add to your excellent post:
As an orthopedic surgeon, I have performed so many amputations for this type of foot. The level of amputation is below the knee. Performing an amputation of the front part of the foot is not the standard of care because the risk of the wound not healing---due to the poor blood supply that created the ulcer in the first place—is so high. With an amputation below the knee the patient must be fit for a prosthesis in order to walk without crutches or a walker. The cost of a below the knee prosthesis ranges from $3-24K. And prostheses need maintenance and replaced after some years. And there is the cost of rehab, so that patient can learn how to put on and take off the artificial leg prosthesis and walk with it.
Thank you for this wake up call! I would like to share this in my class. We are going over the disparities that plague our communities. Thanks again for your informative post. Much gratitude, Athena T :)
Black Americans are 4 times as likely to have an ampution as white Americans. This relates to less access to primary care. Optimal medical therapy is not available to most of us. What do you teach?
It was enough giving "lip service" to this profound injustice of the "medical profession" as we know it. It is one of the ugly realities of a horrendous human tragedy, the legacy of late-stage sickness-seeking profiteering American Medical Industrial Complex Self-righteous and pretentiously vain Kabuki Dance Theatre System sponsored by the paymasters of the American Crony Monopolistic Medical Criminal Enterprise! Perpetrated by greedy gangsters pretending to be "Healthcare experts."
Refusing to live in a lie and giving just the utter empty "lip services" to "promote patient-centric preventive solutions," I walked away from my daily clinical "practices" in 1997. I embarked on the most unlikely and utterly improbable journey to develop and founded the first technological embodiment of Computational BioCybernetics & Lagrangian Mechanics Systems BioEngineering Technologies Platform to assist people in understanding the root causes of all diseases truly better. We had less than a 0.00001% chance of succeeding at the time. Nevertheless, we persisted and persevered.
This comment is from Dr. Mary O'Connor previously head of Orthopedics at Yale and founder of Vori Health
Bill,
If you care to add to your excellent post:
As an orthopedic surgeon, I have performed so many amputations for this type of foot. The level of amputation is below the knee. Performing an amputation of the front part of the foot is not the standard of care because the risk of the wound not healing---due to the poor blood supply that created the ulcer in the first place—is so high. With an amputation below the knee the patient must be fit for a prosthesis in order to walk without crutches or a walker. The cost of a below the knee prosthesis ranges from $3-24K. And prostheses need maintenance and replaced after some years. And there is the cost of rehab, so that patient can learn how to put on and take off the artificial leg prosthesis and walk with it.
Prevention is so much better than this.
Thanks Mary for sending this to my email. It is an expensive and threatening complication. Your insignt is valuable for readers.
Thank you for this wake up call! I would like to share this in my class. We are going over the disparities that plague our communities. Thanks again for your informative post. Much gratitude, Athena T :)
Black Americans are 4 times as likely to have an ampution as white Americans. This relates to less access to primary care. Optimal medical therapy is not available to most of us. What do you teach?
That picture is certainly an attention grabber. Albert Einstein's definition of insanity does hold true and we "should" take heed.
The path forward is crystal clear. Let leaders know that you expect them to make the required changes. We can have better health at lower cost now.
We can early detect, reverse, and prevent this tragedy from ever happening to anyone.
It was enough giving "lip service" to this profound injustice of the "medical profession" as we know it. It is one of the ugly realities of a horrendous human tragedy, the legacy of late-stage sickness-seeking profiteering American Medical Industrial Complex Self-righteous and pretentiously vain Kabuki Dance Theatre System sponsored by the paymasters of the American Crony Monopolistic Medical Criminal Enterprise! Perpetrated by greedy gangsters pretending to be "Healthcare experts."
Refusing to live in a lie and giving just the utter empty "lip services" to "promote patient-centric preventive solutions," I walked away from my daily clinical "practices" in 1997. I embarked on the most unlikely and utterly improbable journey to develop and founded the first technological embodiment of Computational BioCybernetics & Lagrangian Mechanics Systems BioEngineering Technologies Platform to assist people in understanding the root causes of all diseases truly better. We had less than a 0.00001% chance of succeeding at the time. Nevertheless, we persisted and persevered.
Thank goodness we succeeded and are thriving!