ST. CHARLES, MO – Many patients have avoided amputation by seeking a second opinion from vascular surgeons at St. Joseph Health Center’s SSM Vascular Institute. The Institute’s Limb Salvage Program is for those with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who need either endovascular or hybrid/surgical bypass. Hybrid procedures are those which combine different techniques and surgical strategies in order to provide the best care possible for patients.
St. Joseph Health Center has the only hybrid vascular operating room in St. Charles County. The Institute’s vascular surgeons perform more than 200 endovascular interventions for PAD each year.
Many patients, such as Donald Whyte, are referred to the hospital by podiatrists for additional evaluation and possible advanced vascular procedures that will avoid amputation. The Vascular Institute’s Limb Salvage Program did just that for Mr. Whyte – his leg was saved.
Whyte, 79 and diabetic, had been told by doctors in Columbia, Mo., that his leg would need to be amputated. He had already lost his eyesight to diabetes.
“I was beside myself,” says Whyte, of Montgomery City. “The doctors in Columbia told me I had blockage just below the knee and wanted to amputate,” he says.
A podiatrist suggested he come to The SSM Vascular Institute at St. Joseph Health Center where TJ Schneider, MD, and Todd Neuberger, MD, vascular surgeons, specialize in helping patients with claudication, rest pain, foot and leg ulcers, and gangrene.
After several consultations, Dr. Schneider performed a hybrid procedure with a minimally invasive right femoral endarterectomy, endovascular balloon angioplasty and stents in two areas of the femoral artery and the procedure was successful.
“I’m not a 100 percent yet,” says Whyte, “but they saved my leg!”
About SSM St. Joseph Health Center
SSM St. Joseph Health Center, a state-designated Level II Trauma Center, Chest Pain Center and Primary Stroke Center, is recipient of the Premier Award for Quality, Premier/CareScience Award for Excellence in Quality of Patient Care and Efficiency and Premier Award for Quality/National Leader in Heart Attack Care. The facility offers a broad range of exceptional services and houses SSM Cancer Care, the SSM Heart Institute, The Vascular Institute, SSM Center for Sleep Disorders and more. Along with SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, it is the largest provider of health care in St. Charles, Warren and Lincoln counties. St. Joseph Health Center and St. Joseph Hospital West are members of SSM Health Care, the first health care winner of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. For more information about St. Joseph Health Center, please visit www.ssmstjoseph.com
For more information about The SSM Vascular Institute at St. Joseph Health Center call 636-669-2332 or visit ssmstjosephvascular.com.
**To interview Mr. Whyte or another SSM Vascular Institute patient please contact Rachel Peine at Rachel_C_Peine@ssmhc.com or call (636) 947-5621.**