Meet Dr. Foluso Fakorede.
He’s the only cardiologist in Bolivar County, Mississippi. He runs what's called the Amputation Prevention Institute.
@lizziepresser spent months unpacking why black diabetics lose their limbs at three times the rate of others. Here's what she found.
He’s the only cardiologist in Bolivar County, Mississippi. He runs what's called the Amputation Prevention Institute.
@lizziepresser spent months unpacking why black diabetics lose their limbs at three times the rate of others. Here's what she found.
2/ Diabetic amputations are largely preventable.
Take a look at where amputations are happening across the country and the enslaved population before the Civil War.
Fakorede sees amputations as a form of racial oppression, dating back to slavery.
Take a look at where amputations are happening across the country and the enslaved population before the Civil War.
Fakorede sees amputations as a form of racial oppression, dating back to slavery.
3/ Despite the great scientific strides in diabetes care, the rate of amputations across the country grew by 50% between 2009 and 2015. Diabetics undergo 130,000 amputations each year, often in low-income and underinsured neighborhoods.
4/ COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting black patients, and in particular, those with diabetes. This is the same population that’s hit hardest by amputations.
And it signals grave failures in preventive health.
And it signals grave failures in preventive health.
5/ These amputations represent the cardinal sin of the American health system in a single surgery: save on preventive care, pay big on the backend, and let the chronically sick and underprivileged feel the extreme consequences.
6/ Neither hospitals nor insurers direct doctors to consider limb-saving options before amputating, like ordering angiograms, the most reliable imaging that shows whether an amputation is necessary and how much needs to be cut.
7/ Nationwide, more than half of patients do not get an angiogram before amputation.
And what’s more: The federal government doesn’t require the most at-risk patients to be screened for vascular disease in the legs.
And what’s more: The federal government doesn’t require the most at-risk patients to be screened for vascular disease in the legs.
8/ Fakorede found the vast majority of amputees he treated had never had an angiogram. Now, he was determined to make sure that no one else lost a limb before getting one.
To him, that’s like removing a woman’s breast after she felt a lump, without first ordering a mammogram.
To him, that’s like removing a woman’s breast after she felt a lump, without first ordering a mammogram.
9/ Fakorede thinks of amputees like “an hourglass that was turned the day they had their amputation.” Death rates rise after the surgeries, in part, because many stop walking. Within five years, these patients were likely to be dead.
His work shows they don't have to be.
His work shows they don't have to be.
