Amputation

41-year-old Leslie Cowili from San Diego was completely healthy when she arrived for a routine heart checkup. Doctors discovered a life-threatening aortic dissection and rushed her into an eight-and-a-half-hour emergency surgery. Her life was saved, but in the weeks that followed, blood flow to her arms and legs was severely compromised, and doctors were forced to amputate her limbs.

Aleksandr Polukarov, a former defender well-known to football fans in Israel, and especially to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, underwent an amputation of part of his leg at the age of 66: "The reasons are unknown."

An innovative treatment is helping patients with severe limb ischemia avoid amputation. At the Galilee Medical Center, doctors have successfully used the TrueLok Elevate system to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels.