Vascular Procedure Aids Bootheel Man

Theodis Maltbia found it painful just to walk to his mailbox. "I couldn't walk as far as the street. I would just be in excruciating pain in my legs and feet," the New Madrid, Mo., man recalls.

Maltbia suffered from peripheral vascular disease, a condition of the blood vessels that leads to narrowing and hardening of the arteries that supply the legs and feet. "My feet were turning black," he says, recalling the vascular problem.

He previously had undergone two bypasses and two stent procedures, none of them at Southeast. "Nothing helped," he says.

He finally turned to Southeast Hospital and its expert cardiovascular staff for help. "I went to the Emergency room at Southeast after people told me about the excellent care at Southeast," he notes.

Maltbia came to the Emergency Department on Sept. 15, 2010 in severe pain. Two days later, Southeast cardiovascular surgeon Murali Macherla, MD, installed two stents -- one in a lower abdominal artery and the other in an artery in the left thigh -- to improve blood flow.

Maltbia says he could tell the difference right away. A day later, on Sept. 18, he was up and walking without pain. "I was so happy. I walked all around the Hospital," he recalls. He was discharged that day.

At Dr. Macherla's encouragement, Maltbia quit smoking. "I am walking and exercising on the treadmill," Maltbia notes.

"I am just happy to be walking," he points out. "I prayed for a good doctor," he recalls, adding that his prayers were answered. Maltbia says Dr. Macherla immediately put him at ease with his bedside manner. "His staff was cooperative. Every question I asked, they had an answer for me," he says. "The nurses at Southeast were great. They showed they care."

The New Madrid man says he knows why he is back on his feet now. "It was the skill of the doctor," he notes.

Dr. Macherla says Maltbia benefited from the Hospital's high-tech, hybrid endovascular surgery suite which accommodates minimally invasive stent procedures as well as more invasive vascular surgery.

The use of stents has become common. They are inserted through a needle hole and allow for quicker recovery. "This is the first line of treatment for many vascular conditions. We have a very good team here," says Dr. Macherla.