Cynthia's Story: Inova Limb Preservation Program Prevents a Double Amputation

Donations to support Inova’s Limb Preservation program help fund research and enhanced patient care for those individuals like Cynthia who face limb-threatening conditions.

When federal police officer, Cynthia Martin experie heels as a result of blocked arteries and poor blood wound care specialists she was working with left h had an angiogram with a vascular specialist, and the only thing we could do was amputate both legs. " In desperation, she searched online for "wound care scheduled an appointment at an Inova Wound Hea

"

Once I was at Inova, they said they were going to could to save my legs, " Cynthia said. It gave her ho that her condition might improve.

Advanced wound treatment was initiated, and Cyn Dipankar Mukherjee, MD, Chief of Vascular Surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital, who determined she needed bypass surgery in her left leg Her symptoms improved nearly immediately and Inova's wound specialists worked for several months to save both of her legs.

When the sores on Cynthia's right foot worsened, the team sprang into action to coordinate a timely intervention In April 2022, bypass surgery was performed on her right leg and treatment using advanced wound care continued. Today, all of her sores have 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 legsand that would have been absolutely devastating. "

Cynthia Martin, Inova Patient

Inova has partnered with the Amputation Prevention Alliance to address the urgent public health challenge of preventable diabetesrelated amputations through targeted policy changes to raise awarenees and increase access to care with organizations like Inova that preserve limbs and lives.