BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A South Florida surgeon faces a long road to recovery nearly two years after a serious car crash in South Carolina shattered much of his lower left leg.
Speaking with reporters earlier this week, Dr. Jesus Jimenez acknowledges the daunting challenges ahead of him.
“It’s going to take time,” he said.
What keeps driving the surgeon is a mixture of strength and determination.
“These injuries that I’ve sustained are not going to heal from one day to the next,” he said.
Jimenez detailed the injuries he suffered in the 2020 crash.
“Both of my ankles were fractured. My left ankle being an open fracture with injuries to arteries and injuries to nerves,” he said.
Jimenez is a vascular surgeon at Bethesda Hospital in Boynton Beach.
“What I do for a living? Save lives and help people keep their legs,” he said.
However, in September 2020, Jimenez was told he may have to face an amputation himself.
“To find myself in this role reversal of being in a trauma hospital, and me being the patient, was quite intense,” he said.
After his first surgery in Charleston, Jimenez made a phone call to his colleague, Dr. Julio Ortiz.
“There was a greater than 50% chance that he would lose a limb,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz said Jimenez is more than a colleague.
“Dr. Jimenez has always been in many ways a mentor and almost like a big brother,” said Ortiz.
Now Jimenez’s friend, a reconstructive foot and ankle surgeon, took on the critical task of performing a series of limb-saving surgeries.
“Studies show that within a five-year period of someone losing their limb, because of the excess workload on their heart, there’s a high risk of mortality,” said Ortiz. “If we can save the limb, we can often save their life.”
Jimenez has undergone eight surgeries to date, two more on the horizon.
“I really had some very difficult moments after the injury, and some dark moments,” he said. “Those experiences have made me more have more empathy for my patients.”
“He was able to find a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Ortiz.
Jimenez said the journey to save his leg has prompted a new outlook on life.
“I’m extremely fortunate,” he said.
Jimenez’s next surgery will most likely be a total ankle joint replacement, when the damaged section of the ankle joint is replaced with an implant.
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