Meet Dr. Lee Rogers (D-CA)-- Not Your Regular Kind Of Politician

Lately we've been talking up a storm about Buck McKeon and his new ethics problems involving taking a gigantic bribe from Countrywide. That story is still developing, although McKeon is looking toastier and toastier, and the case has now risen to an official House Ethics Committee investigation. His partner in the same crime, Elton Gallegly, from the district next door, already announced his retirement. I doubt McKeon will go quietly, but I'm sure he doesn't want to go to prison either, and prosecutors often make deals with wayward politicians along those lines.

In any case, with McKeon's Democratic opponent, Lee Rogers, looking more and more likely to make it to Congress next year, I thought it would be nice to get to know more about him. The L.A. Daily News did a terrific, non-political profile this week. Non-political? Yes, it's more about the man than about his ideology or platform. And it's why he's so well-known in Los Angeles... and around the world.

Bob Winkler was told he would lose his leg.

It was the result of Charcot foot, a rare condition associated with diabetes.

Simply put, Charcot foot occurs from a combination of diabetes complications including osteoporosis, which softens the foot's bones and eventually causes the arch of the foot to collapse. This changes the way a patient walks and over time can cause an ulcer.

Underlying this condition is neuropathy, or nerve damage, that prevents the patient from feeling the broken bones or the sore until an infection occurs.

"It's rare for most people, but we see it every day because this is a common condition that leads to amputation," said Dr. Lee Rogers, co-director of the Amputation Prevention Center at Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys.

So when Winkler-- a 65-year-old Sherman Oaks resident-- walked through the door, it was a typical case for Rogers.

What wasn't typical was Rogers' treatment plan.

After being told by a doctor at another hospital that his left leg would have to be amputated from the knee down, Winkler was referred to Rogers for a second opinion-- an act that ultimately saved his leg and possibly his life.

The Amputation Prevention Center opened in 2009. While the vast majority of its patients come in due to diabetes-related problems, the center also treats trauma patients and those with vascular disease.

According to the center's new director, Jeffrey Allard, the Van Nuys facility is the only center in California dedicated to limb salvage, and one of only a handful nationwide.

The center has a 96 percent limb-salvage rate, which Rogers credits to teamwork.

As he describes it, it's not like having a heart attack and going to the hospital to see a cardiologist for all your needs. With limb salvage, a patient will likely need doctors from various specialities including a podiatrist, a vascular surgeon, an infectious disease specialist, a plastic surgeon and an endocrinologist, Rogers says.

"You have to have a team of people because not one person can do everything that's needed. The problem in some institutions is they don't have all those people," Rogers said.

"And let's face it, doctors often times have big egos and they don't work well on teams. And one doctor wants to be in charge of the team, and another doctor wants to be in charge of the team, so you get these political battles going. Those are detrimental to patient care. You have to have a cohesive team."

It also helps having a "one-stop shop" because these are usually urgent problems and patients needing limb care often have limited mobility, so sending them to various locations to see different specialists is not ideal, Rogers says.

In Winkler's case, he walked on a broken foot for almost a year before his previous doctor diagnosed him with Charcot foot.

In 2004, Winkler had surgery to repair the metatarsal bones in his foot with pins and plates. This turned out only to be a temporary fix and about a year later Winkler's arch was collapsed and creating what is called a rocker-bottom foot-- imagine the arch drooping to make the foot look more like the leg of a rocking chair.

Soon, an ulcer larger than a golf ball appeared.

Complicating the issue was that Winkler suffered from vascular problems, so the ulcer wouldn't heal because an insufficient amount of blood and oxygen was making it to the foot.

When he went to Rogers, Winkler says, he had all but accepted he would soon be without his left leg. But Rogers assured him that wasn't the case.

"When I walked out of here I felt fabulous. When I walked in here I felt terrible because I thought he'd say the same thing, that they'd have to cut my foot off," Winkler said.

"As bad of an experience as it could have been, it's been a fabulous experience."

To save his leg, the center's vascular surgeon, Dr. George Andros, restored blood flow to his foot. Then, Rogers and his team removed the joints that were affected by the Charcot foot and rebuilt the foot.

To ensure the bones fused back together, he inserted a bone stimulator inside the leg that irritates the bone to make it grow and heal faster. The stimulator runs on batteries and works for six months after surgery.

Winkler had three surgeries to repair his foot and was at the center regularly for dermagraft to repair the ulcer.

The average number of surgeries patients have at the center is 2.9 and the average number of visits to the center is 8.9, with an average wound-healing time of 52 days.

"Amputation is a quick, easy fix, it's a single surgery. In Winkler's case he had multiple surgeries, it wasn't quick and it wasn't easy. Now it's easy because now he has a leg," Rogers said. "There's a whole host of reasons of why to keep somebody's leg on."

For patients who have diabetes-related leg amputations, Rogers says there is a 50 percent chance of losing the other leg in the next two years and the risk of dying is 68 percent within five years.

Rogers attributes this to the underlying diseases patients with severe diabetes likely have, including heart disease and blood vessel disease. He says forcing a relatively sedentary lifestyle on them due to an amputation may exacerbate those underlying diseases, resulting in a heart attack or stroke.

But this doesn't mean that amputations are never the answer.

"We are not 100 percent successful here," Rogers said. "And there are times I do recommend an amputation if it's going to save their life or I have no choice."

Helping their chances of limb salvage is the cutting-edge technology they use.

That includes a Silhouette Camera that attaches to PDA devices to scan wounds and give exact multidimensional measurements. It also charts the wound over time so doctors can see if the wound is getting smaller or if it's not healing.

A device called the Spy Imager helps the doctors know where there is tissue with no blood flow that needs to be removed. A green dye is injected into the body and within seconds it hits the foot. A laser camera scanned over the area detects where the dye is. If the area appears black, that means the dye did not get to the tissue because it has no blood flow.

Then the doctor can draw around the exact area to ensure the dead tissue is completely removed.

Another device that is used is not a medical tool, but Rogers says it is extremely beneficial. Doctors use the same thermal imager that the military and police use to identify where an ulcer is forming or how far an infection is spreading.

"We know temperature is a good indicator to a lot of things, mostly inflammation. So I can use a thermal imager to see what's inflamed," Rogers said. "Even though it's not a medical tool, it's an invaluable tool to the things that we do."

While the team at the Amputation Prevention Center has the technology and experience to save the limbs for a majority of patients, Rogers admits that sometimes amputations are a better option.

For example, he occasionally recommends an amputation for younger patients who have more active lives. While patients such as Winkler who avoid amputation still have their leg, they are already limited in their mobility.

Currently, Winkler, who had surgery last March, walks in a boot that supports his foot and leg, along with a walker. The goal is for him to graduate to a diabetic shoe.

He is limited in the amount of time he can spend on his feet and he misses walking around the mall, window shopping. Yet, he is grateful to still have his leg.

"It's been unbelievable. They treat me like a king here. I mean, I bless these people because I'm telling you, it's unbelievable what they do," Winkler said. "I owe my leg, my foot and my life to Dr. Rogers, I really do."

Buck McKeon hasn't been in the real world in decades. He's been a career politician rigging the system to make himself rich. He pays his wife and children illegally from campaign money and gets his big donors to funnel him illegal contributions through his wife's "campaign" for Assembly. And when he was in private business, he took his parents' company and helped to bankrupt it. It's time for Buck McKeon to retire and make room for someone who's part of the solution, not part of the country's problems. Please consider helping Lee's campaign here.