This is a crazy story, but if it proves true, it can only help me prove the point that you need to really trust the person who performs foot surgery on you.
According to a recent article in the Daily Mail, 63-year-old Carole Denby committed suicide this year after eight-years of non-stop pain due to a botched surgery on a broken ankle.
While Carole and her husband Howard were on a walk in Wales in 2006, Carole fell and broke her ankle. She was airlifted to a hospital, where she had her first ankle operation, but, according to the article, the surgery wasn’t successful.
What followed supposedly became Carole’s worst nightmare: over the course of the next eight years, she had several more surgeries to try to fix her ankle. She even suffered a stroke during that time period, although it is unclear whether that was caused by her repeated surgeries or not. Finally, her husband says, it all became too much for her and she decided to take her own life, leaving a note that read: "I've had enough. I'm sorry." Now he is requesting an inquest into her medical care by an independent jury.
While most people assume that surgery to repair a broken ankle is fairly straightforward, this tragic case shows that it can be quite complex if not handled by an expert. If you have been told that you need foot or ankle surgery, you need to be sure that your physician specializes in that area of the body to guarantee your best possible outcome.
As a Houston podiatrist, I only operate on feet and ankles, so I have far more experience with these parts of the body than an average surgeon. Before you schedule surgery with a general orthopedist, I invite you to my office for a second-opinion consultation to ensure you receive the optimal treatment plan available.
