A diabetic man who faced losing both legs by amputation after a verruca festered was saved at the 11th hour by Scottish medical technology.
Doctors were resigned to removing 73-year-old Barry Mayled’s legs below the knees because of ulcers that had left him struggling to walk.
However surgery was averted when podiatrists tested a microwave treatment for skin lesions invented by Emblation, a Stirling health tech company.
Mayled, an architect, said: “There was pretty much nothing left to try. It was a matter of when not if my legs would have to be amputated.”
The need for leg amputations is a common complication of diabetes, which can reduce blood flow and cause nerve damage in the lower limbs. This results in wounds, ulcers and infections becoming gangrenous.
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In 2017 a verruca on Mayled’s foot ulcerated and became septic. The infection proved resistant to treatment and eventually spread to both feet.
With double amputation looking inevitable, specialists turned to experimental medicine in the form of the Swift device — a small machine that targets low-energy doses of microwaves to stimulate the immune system.
The machine was developed in 2016 by Gary Beale and Eamon McErlean who met while studying science at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and went on to launch Emblation.
The highly targeted procedure avoids breaking the skin and takes only a matter of seconds, allowing healing to begin immediately.
Tracy Davies, the podiatrist who treated Mayled, said: “It was time to look at the problem from a different angle. Quite frankly we had nothing to lose.
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“I was amazed by the remarkable turnaround in Barry’s condition. My business partner and I have both been HCPC-registered podiatrists for more than 40 years and Swift has shown the most effective treatment outcomes for verrucae we have treated to date.”
After monthly treatments over a year, Mayled’s feet healed completely and he has returned to work.
He said: “It saved my life. I’m still working and I’m on building sites and everything, and without my legs, that would have been the end of it.”
Beale, the chief executive of Emblation, said: “Cases like this motivate us to continue innovating and raising awareness so that more patients can access and benefit from this game-changing technology.”
The Scottish inventors are testing their machine for other conditions such as basal cell carcinoma skin cancer.
