For patients without a primary care doctor, answers to medical questions can be hard to come by. Often it’s easier to ignore a health issue, hoping it will go away, than it is to seek treatment. Fortunately, 55-year-old Donald Agee discovered the Community Health Center before it cost him his leg.
He visited the clinic July 2011 with numbness in his right toes, dizziness and blurred vision. A long history of smoking and high blood pressure led the doctors to run some tests on Donald’s heart. The results concerned them, and they referred Donald to the cardiology department at AAMC.
It was a timely call because cardiologists discovered a weakness in Donald’s heart and narrowing of the arteries in his right leg. Without treatment, his leg would have become severely damaged from lack of blood flow. In situations like this, patients who wait eventually require amputation to save their lives. Doctors put two stents in to open and shore up the damaged arteries and restore circulation.
Donald said he felt better immediately, and is thankful the community health center was there when he needed it. “If I hadn’t of gone to the clinic, I would have lost my leg,” he said.
