Rev. Arthur Bradley: Answered Prayer Helped Save Him From A Leg Amputation Due to Peripheral Artery Disease 

Reverend Arthur Bradley had all the risk factors for Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD). He was obese, a smoker and had a family history. His dad, also a smoker, had both his legs amputated because of PAD before he passed away. His older brother also suffers from PAD.

PAD is a common circulatory problem in which plaque builds up inside the arteries and obstructs blood flow to the lower limbs and feet.

Rev. Arthur feared he might one day face leg amputation. “I can’t preach sitting down,” he said.

"A congregation member said, ‘Just cut his leg off.’ And this wasn’t funny to me. That scared me cause my father had PAD and they amputated both of his legs.”

An Answer to Prayer

While PAD sufferers typically endure months if not years of extreme pain, Rev. Arthur found the right doctor with the right treatment just two months after noticing he had trouble walking more than about 25 feet.

Was it divine intervention or just plain good luck that he happened to find a doctor aware of a new, minimally invasive treatment to restore blood flow called Lumivascular procedure?

Rev. Arthur will tell you that his 22 years of preaching undoubtedly helped him a strong connection to his higher power. And it didn’t hurt that he had a whole congregation at his church, Precious Love, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, praying for him.

Long-Lost Friends

Rev. Arthur said he was also blessed to have a friend, Dr. Barry Tedder, who happened to be a cardiologist at St. Bernards Heart and Vascular in Jonesboro, Arkansas. And that, as luck would have it, Dr. Tedder had experience with the Lumivascular system.

Years ago, before he became a pastor, Rev. Arthur worked as a radiology technician at the same hospital Dr. Tedder worked at, and they became friends. Though they hadn’t seen each other in years, Rev. Arthur felt guided that Dr. Tedder could help him.

And he was right.

Unlike many patients, who struggle to find a doctor knowledgeable about the latest treatments and technologies, Rev. Arthur was very lucky to find help as fast as he did.

Dr. Tedder agrees. “Patients with severe claudication [leg pain] like Rev. Arthur often cope with a great deal of pain that very much limits their lifestyle and what they can do. They usually end up not walking anymore. They quit doing stuff.”

Lumivascular: A New, Innovative Procedure

The Lumivascular system, Dr. Tedder explained, is an imaging tool with a camera that allows the doctor to “see where we’re going inside the artery to remove the calcified plaque, and you can keep it in the middle and avoid accidentally hitting a vessel wall that causes a hemorrhage, something that was easy to do with previous tools.”

One of the benefits of the Lumivascular procedure, Dr. Tedder said, “is that we’re able to use a lot less radiation, and, since we can see where we are going inside the vessel, we’re much less likely to have complications.”

Rev. Arthur’s right leg was a candidate for a stent to keep the blocked vessel open, so Dr. Tedder did that operation first with success. After that, he used the Lumivascular system on his left leg, “a much more complicated situation because there were two arteries to address, one above and the other below the knee, both blocked with really hard, scarred plaques that had been there for a while.”

Rev. Arthur remembers the operating room feeling very cold, but other than that, the hour-long procedure itself was “pain-free” he said.

Success: Walking Without Leg Pain

When he woke up after the procedure, Rev. Arthur noticed that his feet felt much different. “They weren’t hurting anymore. I was up walking around and doing stuff that same day, and I noticed I could walk a good distance without pain. I’m still pain-free. I can do whatever I want now with no limitations. God is good. Amen to that.”

"I can do whatever I want now with no limitations. God is good. Amen to that.””

Rev. Arthur is so grateful, he includes Dr. Tedder in his daily prayers. “I do all I can to spread the word so that other people like me with PAD find out about this procedure and get help. Because I know that if they don’t, bad things can happen like what happened to my dad.”

Dr. Tedder, who has used the lumivascular system to treat about 100 PAD patients so far, says it’s been “amazing. People come in using wheelchairs and leave walking. Other people have bad foot ulcers and if not for this procedure, they would be facing amputation. But thanks to this system, their ulcers heal up, and they can have a normal life again. It’s very gratifying to save legs and not have to do amputations.”

If you are suffering the symptoms of peripheral artery disease, a minimally invasive Lumivascular procedure can help establish blood flow to your legs and feet.  To find a Lumivascular doctor near you, click here to find a doctor.

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