A Letter from Dr. Steven Reeder, MD, FACS
“I recently returned from my second trip to Nicaragua in the past year, primarily to treat patients with severe venous disease. Our trip was facilitated by a group, Austin Samaritans, based in Austin Texas, and our efforts were all in Matagalpa, which is a city of about a half a million people northeast of Managua. For this trip, my wife, son and I along with three volunteers from Medical City Dallas were on the trip. We tried to see only people with the most severe disease, while those with milder disease were fitted with compression stockings.
“On this last trip, we saw about 30 patients in five days who had open ulcerations on one or both lower extremities secondary to severe venous disease. We also saw another 30, who either had incipient ulceration or severe disease with healed ulcerations. In addition, of course, we saw people with just severe varices and swollen, painful legs. None of these people have ever had treatment before, and, in fact, as they told us they never expected that they would ever have any treatment for their disease.
“On the first trip in 2010, I was frustrated because there were so many severe ulcerations, and I really had no way to treat these after closing the great saphenous [vein] with the laser and injecting the varicose veins. I needed some way to apply compression, and they were not able to put the compression stockings over the open wounds. This is why before my second trip, I contacted CircAid®, and fortunately you were able to respond with a gift of inelastic adjustable compression wraps. I cannot overemphasize the importance of the contribution that was made. One patient I saw on Monday and applied the CircAid® compression garment. When I saw her back a few days later for her laser treatment, she told me that this was the first time in 10 years that she had had any relief from the pain in her leg.
“All of the patients with ulcers had the CircAid® compression garments applied at the end of the procedure and were given thorough instructions on the use. For the first time I felt that I left them with a way to completely treat and bring about healing of the ulcers and relieve the suffering.
“All the people there were so grateful for everything, and your wonderful product was an invaluable addition to our efforts.
“When I left there were several hundred people on our waiting list for our next trip. The need there is so great. Thank you so much.”
This is just one of the ways that CircAid® demonstrates its unwavering dedication to helping make compression easier all around the globe. For more information about this event, contact CircAid® at (800) CIRCAID (247-2243).
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