Leeches Work
As A Last Resort

ON THE ROAD To GOOD HEALTH,

MIKE MATULIS

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

Rhonda Kincaid of Springfield,
Ill., was as squeamish about
leeches as the next person — un-
til they helped save her ampu-
tated finger.
Last summer, Rhonda and her
husband, Kevin, were west of
Springfield looking at a house.
"Kevin went of with a friend
to look at a storage shed," re-
members Rhonda, a tax analyst
with the Illinois state revenue de-
partment. 'The friend's wife and
I were opening up the garage
door."
Rhonda was having trouble
getting the door to budge. She
put all of her strength into it, and
finally it sprang up, pinning her
finger between the heavy door
and the garage-door jamb.
She thought the door had bad-
ly pinched the middle finger of
her right hand. Actually, the fin-
ger was amputated just above
the second knuckle.
Rhonda was taken to a hospi-
tal
"They said there was no way
they could save it," says Rhonda.
But she wasn't ready to give
up and demanded a second opin-
ion.
An ambulance rushed Rhon-
da to Memorial Medical Center
in Springfield, where plastic sur-
geon Dr. Mindy Haws was able
to successfully reattach the fin-
ger. However, as is often the case,
the veins in the reattached sec-
tion began to fail a couple of days
after the operation.
Blood was flowing in, but the
finger was turning purple be-
cause the veins were not carry-
ing it back out. Rhonda said it felt
like having a throbbing migraine,
but in her finger.
Dr. Robert Russell examined
her and informed Rhonda that
she had two options — have the
section of finger amputated or
undergo leech treatments.
The first leech was placed
right then and there in Dr. Rus-
sell's office.
A leech feeds only for about 30
to 45 minutes before it detaches
on its own. •
Rhonda had several leech
treatments per day for her week-
long stay at the hospital. The only
pain she felt was from the pin
prick that was used to get the
leech feeding.
The leeches did their job, giv-
ing Rhonda's finger time to prop-
erly repair itself.
Her friends don't let her for-
get. They've dubbed her "Miss
Leech Lady."
The nickname doesn't bother
her at all. 0

Mike Matulis writes for Copley
News Service.

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