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Leg Amputees Often Return to Driving: Study |
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TORONTO — Getting back behind the wheel of his Subaru Forester was a big deal for Robert Barry after he had his right foot amputated due to complications from diabetes.
But first of all he had to learn how to drive the vehicle by using his left foot to control the brake pedal and the accelerator, says the 59-year-old sales manager who lives near Milton, west of Toronto.
‘‘In our society, driving is a key thing to be able to do,’’ says Dr. Michael Devlin, a physiatrist at Toronto’s West Park Healthcare Centre which helps more than 200 new amputees a year get back to driving.
About 70 per cent of the amputees who come to West Park are men — ‘‘70 year old guys,’’ says Devlin, who recently completed a study on amputees with diabetes.
‘‘Driving is a guy kind of thing. It’s also not uncommon that the wife does not drive in that (70-year-old) age group.’’
Barry’s problems began in 2001 when the pain in his right leg became excruciating. He suffers from peripheral vascular disease, often brought on by diabetes.
When walking to the barn, ‘‘I felt like I was in a pair of shoes that were 10 sizes too small,’’ says Barry, who owns a one-hectare spread in the country.
‘‘There was a burning sensation. The pain was unbearable,’’ he says.
It began to interfere with his walking, gardening, and driving.
After a visit to a vascular surgeon in early 2003, he was quickly admitted to hospital where a bypass was performed. It didn’t work. He had an angioplasty. That failed. The leg was amputated below the knee.
Barry spent a week in the hospital and then was enrolled in the amputee rehabilitation program at West Park. But that was disrupted when two staples in the incision ‘‘popped.’’
It was about five months before he got back on the road.
‘‘I was able to drive by crossing over with my left leg,’’ he says.
But his problems weren’t over. Last year, he began to have problems with his left leg when an ulcer on a toe developed gangrene.
‘‘I tried everything to save it,’’ he says. He had laser therapy to improve circulation, but to no avail.
His left leg was removed below the knee in March this year, ending his driving — at least for the moment.
Arthur Heaselgrave, 50, a truck driver and motorcycle enthusiast who lives in Orangeville, northwest of Toronto, also had his right leg removed below the knee about five years ago because of diabetes. It took him nearly a year to get back on the road, he says.
He fell while recovering at West Park and had to have several stitches put in. His leg ‘‘swelled up again and I had to wait for it to heal up again,’’ he said.
After lots of therapy, Heaselgrave found he could use his artificial leg to drive.
‘‘I had to use the whole leg, not just the foot,’’ he said. When it comes to his motorcycle, ‘‘I have to use my heel, not the toe, to stop.’’
Barry and Heaselgrave are not alone in their struggle with amputations resulting from diabetes.
In 2004 and 2005, there were about 2,400 leg or foot amputations in Ontario alone, mainly due to the disease, Devlin said in an interview following the release of his study.
In fact, diabetes accounts for about 85 per cent of all people who have an amputation, said Devlin.
There’s hope for victims urgently wanting to get back on the road, he said. His small, six-month-long study involving 123 outpatients at the hospital showed that 80.5 per cent of the participants were back behind the wheel about four months after their amputations.
The research was published in the September issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
Devlin said the study ‘‘gives us some scientific information to assist in decision making regarding a return to the road’’ and fills a huge void. Before ‘‘there was zero out there in the medical literature that allows us to give any kind of advice to individuals about returning to driving.’’
Source: Fort Frances Times Online
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