Vim & Vigor - Fall 2013 - Community Healthcare - (Page 52)

SPOTLIGHT ON: COMMUNITY HOSPITAL A Step Ahead Teaming up against peripheral arterial disease BY ELISE SIMS D ennis Kaegebein of Schererville and Dennis Williams of Hammond had the same goal: to walk without pain. Their shared goal became reality after getting the treatment they needed for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) at the PAD Center of Community Hospital in Munster. “It’s a miracle,” says Williams, a retired police ofﬁcer who had calcium deposits and plaque buildup in his left foot after a motorcycle accident some 40 years earlier. “Instant and total relief; it’s just like I had a new leg.” “It has changed my whole life,” says Kaegebein, who is retired from Inland Steel. “Before, I couldn’t walk. My wife and I like to go to the Lighthouse Mall and I couldn’t walk it. I’d have to stop and take breaks. After my procedure at the Peripheral Arterial Disease Center, I went shopping at the grocery store and walked up and down the aisles with no pain at all!” A COMMON PROBLEM Like 17 million other Americans, Kaegebein and Williams were living with PAD, which occurs when the arteries in the legs—usually the lower leg— become narrowed or blocked by plaque. Blockage can result in critical leg ischemia, a condition in which not enough blood is being delivered to the leg to keep the tissue alive. With only about 25 percent of PAD patients undergoing treatment, it is a disease 52 FA L L 2 013 Schererville resident Dennis Kaegebein (left) and Hammond resident Dennis Williams (right) are walking again without pain after being treated for peripheral arterial disease (PAD) by Prakash Makam, MD, at the PAD Center of Community Hospital in Munster. that is largely underdiagnosed and undertreated. If left untreated, PAD can lead to severe pain, limited physical mobility, life-threatening and nonhealing leg ulcers, and amputation. Kaegebein and Williams were able to ﬁnd relief and are now walking a path to a healthier future with the help of interventional cardiologist Prakash Makam, MD, medical director of the Peripheral Arterial Disease Center. FINDING SOLUTIONS “We are making real advances in the treatment of PAD that will lead to fewer amputations and a better quality of life for so many people,” Makam says. “We used SilverHawk™ on Mr. Kaegebein and TurboHawk™ on Mr. Williams to relieve their pain and symptoms and increase their quality of life and well-being.” The technology used in their procedures is a variation on atherectomy—the cleaning out of an artery through excision. It works by shaving the plaque from artery walls with a tiny blade the size of a grain

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Fall 2013 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2013 - Community Healthcare
Contents
Community Message
Community Briefs
Dream Team
Spreading the Health
Memory Keepers
Step It Up
Your Mightiest Muscle
Well, Well, Well
Are You Doing More Harm Than Good?
Is Your Shut-Eye Serving You Well?
On the Cover
Anatomy of an ER Visit
Next-Gen Surgery
Attack from Within
Virtual Health
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Mary Medical Center
SPOTLIGHT ON: Community Hospital
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Catherine Hospital
In Good Hands

Vim & Vigor - Fall 2013 - Community Healthcare