GOING OUT ON A
LIMB A SURPRISING DIAGNOSIS SAVED ONE MAN’S LEG.
W
hen Frank Mongiello, 73, developed pain in his left thigh in March 2020, he blamed it on strenuous work he’d done at his Lakewood home a few days before. “It felt like a pulled muscle,” he recalls. But instead of fading, the pain persisted and spread to his calf over the course of several weeks. Puzzled, he had a telehealth visit with his physician, Abhijit Chatterjee, MD, a geriatrician at the James and Sharon Maida Geriatrics Institute at Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus (MMCSC), in April. Dr. Chatterjee took a medical history. “He didn’t have any weakness, tingling or numbness,” he recalls. “He’d had a COVID-19 test and it was negative. I thought it might be a muscle sprain, so I told him to apply ice and take over-the-counter Aleve.”
Frank Mongiello is back to his favorite activities after recovering from a painful, difficult-todiagnose condition.
DISCOMFORT, THEN DESPERATION
Frank followed doctor’s orders, but “the pain became more intense,” he says. In June, he saw Dr. Chatterjee. “Frank told me the pain was worse when he stood up from a sitting position, and there
Healthy Together
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