4,400 Reasons – Kevin’s Story
Original article sourced from Diabetes Australia: https://www.diabetesaustralia.com.au/news-resources/news/
Monopoli is a small city in Puglia in the south of Italy looking out over the azure blue of the Adriatic Sea. It was a peaceful spot for Kevin Towers-Hammond and his wife to while away a couple of weeks at the end of a European holiday of a lifetime. But it was also almost the beginning of a nightmare.
“Monopoli is a beautiful place. Blue fishing boats in a blue harbour. The kind of place you dream about but then at some point or another I must have kicked or cut my toe because a little abrasion developed,” Kevin says.
“We tried to treat it with some cream we got from a local pharmacy but things weren’t getting better and the little abrasion turned into an infected ulcer. Look I’ve lived with type 2 diabetes for 15 years and my father died at 57 of heart issues, which I suspect was a result of diabetes, so I was aware of the seriousness, but I wasn’t sure what came next. It was scary. I’ve got 10 grandkids and I’ve got grand plans to spend my retirement with them, but that all threatened to unravel. When I came back to Australia my GP referred me to a podiatrist. I was prescribed antibiotics but the situation rapidly deteriorated as the infection had spread to the bone.”
“I was admitted to Fiona Stanley and thankfully under the care of a brilliant vascular surgeon, Dr Carsten Ritter, who inserted seven stents into my infected leg. He diagnosed severe atherosclerosis, common to people with type 2 diabetes, which had to be repaired to get circulation to my foot in order for it to heal. I then had my toe amputated to stop the infection. So, Dr Ritter was able to put the stents in the arteries in my legs which helped to get the blood flowing down into my foot.”
“Without that circulation my foot problems were likely to keep getting worse which would lead to my leg being amputated.” For Kevin, who enjoyed a successful career in wine tourism, an amputation would have spelt the end of many of his retirement dreams. “The thought of losing a leg was terrifying. For one I live in a two-storey house. We would have been packing that up and moving. And then there are just the huge implications it would have on my entire lifestyle. The grandchildren are scattered all across the state. We drive to visit them so that would have been off the table. I mean I’m not long back from visiting my son up in Kalbarri on the mid-north coast of West Australia. It’s a beautiful spot by the sea. He’s up there with his three kids.”
“We went out to Murchison Gorge to the Skywalk. Absolutely spectacular. Like the Grand Canyon but not as grand,” he laughs. “Seriously though I couldn’t have driven up there if I’d had a serious amputation and, secondly, if I could have gotten up there I couldn’t have done the things I enjoyed doing. It would have really meant a quite different retirement to the one my wife and I had planned.”
But Kevin has some important advice for people with diabetes.
“First thing, is to stay on top of your diabetes management and that includes looking after your feet. See a podiatrist regularly and if problems are escalating make sure you get a second opinion. There are treatments and therapies out there that might be able to help you, even if the situation is looking grim. As part of my recuperation Dr Ritter referred me to the Hyperbaric Chamber Unit at Fiona Stanley. I attended for 40 days of treatment which I believe was the reason my outcome has been so positive.”
Kevin on holiday in Monopoli, Italy.
Kevin and his family on the Skywalk at Murchison Gorge, Kalbarri.
