Terry Henricks had been suffering from poor circulation in his left leg for years, but what was supposed to be a simple procedure to bring relief quickly spiraled into a scary situation.
“I had gone to have a stent put in, but I went home in terrible pain,” Henricks, now 79, recalled. “I could see my calf was filling up with blood. I couldn’t walk on it. I couldn’t do anything.”
Nearly six years after his emergency surgery at UTMC that saved his left leg, Terry Henricks and his wife, Dixie, are thankful for the expert care.
After multiple trips to a northwest Ohio medical facility for the pain, Henricks was eventually told he needed specialized care — and he needed it fast.
An ER doctor referred Henricks, who lives in Archbold, to The University of Toledo Medical Center, where he was rushed into surgery for acute compartment syndrome.
“He had a very high chance of losing his leg,” said Dr. Munier Nazzal, chief of the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UTMC. “His condition had grown serious and Terry was within hours of losing his leg.”
Acute compartment syndrome occurs when swelling or bleeding causes a dangerous rise in pressure inside a muscle. Though most commonly seen alongside broken bones or other trauma, compartment syndrome also can be a complication of procedures meant to restore blood flow.
Because of UTMC’s relationships with various regional hospitals, UTMC’s surgical intensive care unit was notified Henricks was en route and had Nazzal and his team ready and waiting so the surgery could start immediately upon arrival.
Henricks’ operation, which took place in September 2017, had gone well but it wasn’t immediately clear if his leg could be saved. The procedure left Henricks with large wounds that would need time to heal.
“I was laid up for a long time after my surgery, but I could not have asked for better care,” he said. “The nurses, the staff, Dr. Nazzal and his nurse practitioner — everybody was just an absolute blessing.”
Henricks had trusted UTMC before, undergoing a successful quadruple bypass at the hospital in 2014. Little by little after his leg surgery, he and Dixie, his wife of 60 years, grew more confident that UTMC had saved his leg, too.
“It was hard, but I was thankful that we got down there to UTMC and they discovered what was wrong,” Dixie Henricks said. “Dr. Nazzal couldn’t have been better. We just praised him to everybody. We invited him to our anniversary party. He’s just wonderful. He really takes time with Terry, even though things have pretty much passed.”
Nearly six years after the procedure on his leg, Henricks’ wounds have healed. Though he lost a lot of muscle and experiences numbness from the knee down, he kept his leg.
“The most complex prosthetic limb cannot fully replace the functions of our own limbs. We are very focused on doing everything we can to preserve a patient’s limb and maintain their mobility,” Nazzal said. “In Terry’s case, he had a prolonged recovery because of the nature of his wounds. His recovery took a lot of effort from the entire team at UTMC, but he was an engaged patient and has done very well.”
Though Henricks, who has owned the Chrysler dealership in Archbold for more than 30 years and more recently purchased the village’s Ford franchise, had to give up some hobbies, he remains grateful for the care he received at UTMC.
“I’m tickled to death I didn’t lose my leg,” he said. “I was just very, very thankful. They’ve been so good to me. From what I can see, they’ve done everything right. From the staff to the doctors, everything was just done very professionally. They were absolutely supreme in taking care of me.”
