Necrotic leg!!!
Today’s case is definitley an unfortunate one! Nope, that’s not a funny looking prosthetic on her left leg... that’s a gangrenous foot with a leg down to the bone. This 23 year old female developed gangrene to her left foot secondary to peripheral artery disease (PAD), which is most commonly caused by diabetes and poor diet! At the initial visit, she refused treatment as she wanted a more holistic, rather than western, medical approach. She went to a spiritual treatment church for 4 months and came back to the clinic with the above leg. The infection continued to grow, and the bacteria ended up eating the tissue just below the knee. I hate to break it to you people, but holistic treatments do not work for acute issues. Do we think there is a place for alternative medicine, of course we do! However, this is not a treatment for an acute cause. The herbal treatments would not do shit for a bacterial infection, such as a cellulitis. You can criticize that belief, but are many people come in saying “I treated my UTI with an holistic medicine”, but they have not gotten better. This is because they are treating symptoms rather than attacking the infection at the source, the bacteria. Unfortunately, the alternative method cannot match against an antibiotic when attempting to rid an infection. All in all, we do believe that there are significant uses for holistic approaches to medical treatments. However, you cannot believe that holistic methods should be used as alternatives to the Western medical treatments that have scientific merit when treating specific diseases. Photo by @trauma_time
Why didn't she just go with the treatment, I will not critisize for belief but how could you ignore your leg being eaten?
Sometimes I wonder how patients let simple infections spiral into things like this.