A challenging case

Thirty-nine year old Frank Herdia, a roofing contractor and father of three, was in a motorcycle accident eight months ago. He has had surgery on his arm and his leg after his accident, but developed MSRA, a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to antibiotics,in his femur. His family and friends have spent $25,000 on healthcare for him so far, and his leg was still alarmingly infected. It was decided that the only possible course of action would be disarticulation at the hip. Frank's entire leg was removed.

The virulence of the infection was of great concern to the medical staff. A case conference was rapidly convened including top medical personnel from the hospital and members of the CAMTA team to clarify techniques to be used in the OR and in post-op.

We are lucky to have Dr. Paul Moreau with us. He has performed this surgery over 40 times in his career. The surgery took two hours and Frank needed 4 units of blood. He had two catheters inserted into his femoral and sciatic nerve to deliver post-op pain relief. By Sunday's dressing change the wound looked clean. Frank will see the physios today (Monday) and will likely be discharged tomorrow with only oral pain medication.

Already CAMTA staff are seeing a difference in Frank. When he arrived, he looked sick and pale and had little to say. He was obviously worried about his family's future without him. While he has grieved the loss of leg, he has changed remarkably over the past few days and is now making jokes with CAMTA staff. With the support of a loving wife and his community, it looks like Frank will be able to thrive.