Biography: Pam Mitchell

My name is Pam Mitchell. I have had diabetes for 41 years. I had a kidney transplant 23 years ago. Since that time I have lived a relatively normal life. I worked, worked out, had a garden and walked my dogs. Then I got my first diabetic foot ulcer 4 years ago. Then I got another one, complicated by osteomyelitis (bone infection) three times in one year. My doctors tried different treatments and IV antibiotics. Still, I had to have a partial amputation of two toes. After surgically treating two of my ulcers, I was left with a hole in my heel about an inch deep and 2 inches around. It was classified as a Stage IV ulcer. Of course, my doctors were talking about amputation and wanted me to consider it.

Then by chance a friend saw a story about Maggot Therapy on the Learning Channel. I asked my doctors about it and they informed me that it would NEVER work for me because of the severity of my ulcer and because I also had osteomyelitis. I had one doctor tell me to "give it up, have my foot amputated and see a psychologist." Well, I didn't need a psychologist, I just needed my doctors to do all they could do to save my feet.

Eventually, with a lot of perseverance on my part and a doctor who was willing to take a chance, we tried maggot therapy on both of my feet. Needless to say, I still have my feet. They are and have been totally healed for over a year. Because of the great success with my feet, the wound center at my area hospital now offers maggot therapy routinely. Maggot therapy not only healed my ulcers, but also worked on the bone and cleared up the osteomyelitis. So, when the doctors took me off the IV antibiotic I was on, a rare bone marrow disease MDS (a side effect from the antibiotic) cleared up also. At the time I was preparing to go through a bone-marrow transplant. So, actually the maggots not only saved my feet . . . they saved my LIFE!