Marquita's Journey to Recovery: Your Help Needed

My name is Marquita. In August of 2024, I found out that I had a callus on the bottom of my left toe. Not knowing where or how I developed the callus, I went to my local urgent care. My local urgent care advised me to have it looked at by a podiatrist at Northshore in Hammond, Indiana. The podiatrist at Northshore advised me that I needed to see a wound care specialist at Methodist Northlake.

After visiting with the wound care specialist at Methodist Northlake, he determined that I needed further treatment for the infection that had begun to set in. I was hospitalized directly after my appointment and placed on IV antibiotics. I quickly became septic, and gangrene had set in my left toe. I was assigned a podiatrist, and he suggested that my toe be amputated immediately. Without getting a second opinion, I allowed the podiatrist to amputate my left big toe. I was discharged from Methodist Northlake 2 days after the amputation with no therapy, pain medication, or antibiotics.

I had several follow-ups with Dr. XX, just to find out that he wanted to amputate the rest of my toes on the left foot because he stated the infection had spread to my other toes. Dr. XX stated he needed to amputate the rest of my toes to the heel. At this time, depression had set in at the thought of losing my foot. I was given another doctor’s contact info in an effort to obtain a second opinion. I received a second opinion from Dr. YY, and he was actually able to save the rest of my toes without having to amputate them. He immediately placed me on IV antibiotics and did a debridement (clean-up) of what Dr. XX left, including shaving down the bone and removing the infection that was left in the left big toe.

I am now on IV antibiotics daily at home through a PICC line for the next 8 weeks. There were several mistakes made by the first doctor, including not placing me on antibiotics, not following up with the wound care doctor, etc. I have not worked due to not being able to bear weight on my foot while it is healing. I am in need of toe fillers and a prosthetic big toe to be able to walk with balance and feel somewhat normal again.