COLUMBIA, Mo. (KY3) – A Kansas City nurse and Harrisburg native who once feared losing her leg to a surgical complication is now working full shifts in the emergency room, thanks to treatment at MU Health Care’s Limb Preservation Center in Columbia.
Madeleine Gillman, a runner, ER nurse, and former college soccer player, developed chronic shin splints and stress fractures that required surgery over Thanksgiving break in 2022. A complication during the procedure led to a skin and bone infection that ended her soccer career, disrupted her nursing exams, and put her at risk of amputation.
“I finished nursing school on crutches and with a wound vac and a PICC line,” Gillman said.
Treatment at MU Health Care’s Limb Preservation Center
Gillman’s surgeon referred her to MU Health Care’s Limb Preservation Center, and within two weeks she was seen in Columbia. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Brett Crist and his team removed the infected skin and bone, including a three-inch section of her right tibia, and placed an antibiotic rod in the gap to clear the infection…