There are many diabetic people whose health is deteriorating and their illness is worsening to such a degree that doctors are being forced to amputate toes, parts of feet and even lower sections of their legs. In extreme cases, entire legs from the knee down and even thighs are amputated.
Doctors say that amputation is a necessary medical procedure to prevent diabetic people from developing blood poisoning because of gangrene. Patients can only thank doctors for their quick interference to save them from possible death.
A patient who had such an experience said that the common methods used by doctors in the Kingdom to identify the stage a diabetic patient is at are insufficient and unhealthy.
He said that doctors scratch a patient’s feet with a small pin and if the patient feels the scratching then the sense of feeling in the area is still alive and the nerves are connected to the brain indicating that the veins are still functioning. If the patient does not feel the scratching then alarm bells ring and this could ultimately lead to the amputation of limbs.
The patient said that this medical technique is extremely old-fashioned. Medically and logically, losing sensitivity in the bottom of one’s foot means that nerves in the leg and foot have already died and the dysfunction has reached the bottom of the foot.
There are advanced medical equipment used in many parts of the world to measure the strength of nerves in legs and feet and the amount of blood that is pumped into them. These equipment help doctors in diagnosing the illness early so they can rejuvenate the patient’s weakened nerves at an early stage.
As for waiting until the legs lose every healthy nerve for a doctor to try discovering that by using a pin is a crime that is being committed against diabetic patients. They are losing their feet and legs although amputation could be avoided if the doctor adopts proper procedures or machines.
If we can’t afford to make available these machines to measure the strength of nerves in every diabetic clinic in the Kingdom, we could at least facilitate such machinery in major hospitals and medical centers.
Equipping hospitals with these machines could actually decrease the number of diabetic patients having to undergo amputations. This is for the Health Ministry to take up and I wonder how they feel about this.
