The Prognoses

I went to the doctor’s office a few days after the cast was taken off. The doctor wanted to keep an eye on the opened wound. He had the test results back from the lab. "We have your test results." he said while putting on his glasses. "You are allergic to Vicryl. This is the brand of stitches that were used during your operation. Your body had a bad reaction to the sutures causing them to melt. This is the reason your skin opened up. You also are showing the early signs of gangrene."

"Unfortunately, you will have to heal without stitches. This is known as secondary healing. "

"How long will it take?" I asked.

"If everything were to go well then my estimate would be 2 - 3 weeks." said with hope.

"What could go wrong?" I asked.

"You could develop gas gangrene."

"What is gas gangrene?"

"There are different types of gangrene: dry, moist, diabetic, embolic, symmetric, and gas (a type of moist gangrene). You have the moist type of gangrene. Your medical chart indicates that you have 3 people in your immediate family with diabetes. Which I believe is a contributing factor, combined with the fact that you had multiple compound fractures this raises the odds significantly.”

"Can I die from it?"

"If left untreated, your leg will certainly have to be amputated. Also, if the infection gets into your blood stream, then your blood would be become toxic and death would result."

"What are you going to do with my leg?"

"I will need to see and treat you every other day. I will prescribe the antibiotic Penicillin G. You will have to take high doses, and you must take the pills every 4 hours or the infection will spread to your entire body. I will have to perform a debridement on the infected tissue surrounding your wound."

"What is a debridement?" I asked in fear.

"Debridement is the removal of foreign material or devitalized tissue from or adjacent to a wound, until the healthy tissue is exposed."

"When are you going to do this?"

"Right after we are done talking. A room is being prepared for this as we speak."

"Will it hurt?"

"You should not feel anything. Your nerves were severed in that area. At the most you will feel a tugging."

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