Cleveland resident Maurice Edwards was told he may lose his leg. The circulation to his right leg was so bad that he was in pain, but he dealt with it. But one day in 2019, while riding the bus after work he couldn’t ignore the pain anymore. “I couldn’t really sit down,” Edwards said. “I kept moving around on the bus like I’m on dope or something, you know? Because it was painful.” He got back to his home in the Glenville neighborhood on Cleveland’s East Side and realized how bad the situation truly was.
Dr. Mehdi Shishehbor started the Limb Salvage Advisory Council in 2019. A recent study he published shows it’s working to save limbs and address what some call an “amputation epidemic.”
Black Americans are more likely to have heart disease and diabetes than white Americans, diseases which can lead to amputations if not properly managed, and amputations can lead to further disparities.