Danielle Thomas, 40, began experiencing tingling and numbness in her feet and hands. It was April last year, and the mother of two from Retford, Nottingham, thought it was something temporary.
The neurologist ran blood tests and an MRI. Everything came back fine. According to her, the doctor suggested it might be related to her mental health because of the domestic violence she had experienced years earlier. Four months later, she went back: she felt her legs were ‘dying’ if she walked more than 300 meters. She had more tests, including a CT scan of her spine, and was referred with a diagnosis of functional neurological disorder.
Danielle, a skin therapist, thought she had an ingrown toenail and spent months pushing to be referred to a podiatrist. When she finally took off her sock, he told her he couldn’t help: she had gangrene in her toe due to a lack of blood flow. At the vascular hospital, they found several blockages in both legs: Buerger’s disease. The doctors linked it to her intermittent smoking habit since she was 20. On September 7, her right leg was amputated below the knee. ‘They tested my nervous system and my brain, but overlooked the vascular system,’ she says today.
