ByPriyanka Runwal
Revealed December 1, 2022
• 9 min learn
A uncommon catch of cancer known as synovial sarcoma landed Ellie Lofgreen at the College of Utah Well being facility this summer season. Surgeons removed a tumor—the size of a little cantaloupe—wrapped around her knee joint and furthermore cut out about a inches of bone and muscle connected to the knee. They inserted a steel implant in her leg and lined it with a wide flap of muscle and skin transplanted from her upper thigh. However about a hours later, the flap started turning purple, a effect, the medical doctors knew, that the transplanted tissue used to be death.
Saving the graft used to be serious so the medical group proposed a treatment that bowled over Lofgreen: leeches.
“I used to be completely floored,” says the 31-yr-outdated faculty Idaho resident. “My preliminary response used to be, K, the rest but that.”
