Afrigather
Printed December 1, 2022
9 min learn
A uncommon kind of most cancers known as synovial sarcoma landed Ellie Lofgreen on the College of Utah Hospital this summer season. Surgeons eliminated a tumor—the scale of a small cantaloupe—wrapped round her knee joint and in addition minimize out just a few inches of bone and muscle related to the knee. They inserted a metallic implant in her leg and lined it with a big flap of muscle and pores and skin transplanted from her higher thigh. However just a few hours later, the flap started turning purple, an indication, the medical doctors knew, that the transplanted tissue was dying.
Saving the graft was essential so the medical crew proposed a therapy that shocked Lofgreen: leeches.
“I used to be completely floored,” says the 31-year-old Idaho resident. “My preliminary response was, Okay, something however that.”
