Patient Stories

• Michael Rubenstein

  Hoping to Save Limbs and Toes, California Moves to Curtail Diabetes

  Division of Vascular & Endovascular Surgery David Gorn, CALmatters August 23, 2018

  

  Dr. Alexander Reyzelman treats diabetes patient Michael Rubenstein. Photo by David Gorn/CALmatters The word "amputation" threw a chill down Michael Rubenstein's spine. The 67-year-old diabetic from San Mateo still winces at the thought. "They told me I'd need to cut it off right about here," he said, sawing his hand across his left shin. Two months after that diagnosis, he's on an exam table at the Center for Limb Preservation at UC San Francisco, his leg still whole, the threat of gangrene and amputation gone and his mood a lot less bleak and fearful. "Yeah, it turns out I didn't need [...]

  Story Tags: Charcot FootDiabetic Foot UlcersDiabetic NeuropathiesDiabetic Peripheral NeuropathyPeripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
• John Maduell

  Conceptual Artist Retains Limb Against Long Odds

  UCSF Center for Limb Preservation - January 25, 2016

  

  In his 33-year career as a conceptual artist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, John Maduell illustrated futuristic technologies few others could imagine. But he never envisioned the toll diabetes and vascular disease would take on his body—or that one day he might lose his legs because of these problems.  Maduell's troubles started two years ago when he developed a diabetic ulcer on his left foot. "Before I knew it, I was in the hospital, with three toes amputated," he says. Still, the wound didn't heal, and Maduell, who now lives and paints in Modesto, was told removing the[...]

  Story Tags: Diabetic Foot UlcersDiabetic Peripheral NeuropathyPeripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
• Bicknell Ramsay

  Multidisciplinary Cardiovascular Treatment Saves Limb

  UCSF Center for Limb Preservation - January 16, 2010

  

  Bicknell Ramsay — a 74-year-old retired engineer who lives a fully active life — was concerned that a wound on his foot would not heal. Having volunteered for a clinical study on peripheral artery disease (PAD), he described the wound to the principal investigator, UCSF nurse practitioner Roberta Oka, R.N., DNSc. She referred Ramsay to Michael S. Conte, M.D., (pictured at right on left), Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UCSF Medical Center. By then, the wound exceeded two centimeters and was enlarging. After an ankle-brachial index test found only 30 percent of normal[...]

  Story Tags: Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG)Coronary Artery DiseaseCritical Limb IschemiaLower Extremity Bypass SurgeryPeripheral Artery Disease (PAD)