Eileen Ward and her husband, Robert, chose to settle in Theodosia, Missouri, for a lot of reasons.
They dreamed of a quiet life there — a place close to their families, where their grandkids could splash in Bull Shoals Lake and chase hummingbirds on the deck. They spent weekends boating, camping and riding motorcycles through the Ozarks, savoring the beauty of the outdoors and the joy of sharing it with loved ones.
“It's my heart, it's my life to see them happy and glowing here with me,” Eileen said.
But on a November afternoon in 2022, Eileen and Robert were riding their motorcycle to meet family for dinner when they topped a hill and came face-to-face with a herd of deer crossing the road. Robert had no time to brake or swerve.
“My husband took the brunt of the crash,” Eileen said. “The realization that it even occurred was honestly traumatic. It broke my heart. Waking up in the hospital, I knew Robert had taken the brunt of the accident for me.”
Luck was with the Wards that day: The first people on the scene were a National Guard medic, a nurse and a paramedic. Two ambulances and air medical service helicopters were available to transport the Wards to the nearest hospital.
Robert suffered a broken leg, ankle and shoulder, several crushed ribs and a collapsed lung. Eileen had a devastating injury to her right foot, even though she was wearing boots and proper motorcycle gear.
Eileen’s right foot had to be amputated below the knee in two separate surgeries.
“I was glad to be alive initially, and then once the shock and medication wore off, I had the realization that my foot was actually removed from me,” Eileen said. “In the hospital, the environment made me realize that I may be stuck in a wheelchair. I was gearing up to full-blown bad depression.”
Eileen’s mental health improved when she returned home after a week and met with her prosthetist. Robert’s homecoming after a month in the hospital strengthened that progress.
Robert set up their home in Theodosia to make it easy to get around as they aged. After the crash, family built a ramp to the front door in case he or Eileen needed long-term wheelchair use. And though Eileen could get around on her own most days, daily activities remained painful.
“Getting out of a car and getting out of bed were challenges,” Eileen said. “Every amputee might go through some of these phantom pains, but my pain turned out to be quite different. I found out that as the medication was getting higher and higher, my pain wasn't going any lower.”
Eileen was experiencing a mix of phantom limb pains and phantom limb sensations — nerves that used to be connected to her right foot telling her brain that something wasn’t right — and residual limb pains, or pain at the site of the amputation.
“My leg had intense pain to the touch, and it was just a creepy, crawly feeling my nerves all the way up,” she said. “There were times that I'd have hammer blows, my foot's not there, but it was getting beaten, and my toes would curl up but there’s no toes to do anything. My phantom foot was hot wires, strange, intense pains. I couldn't sleep at night.”
In 2023, she fell twice. Her pain, combined with post-traumatic stress and depression, led to less physical activity. When bloodwork showed she was prediabetic, she knew something had to change.
Looking online for answers, she found a procedure called targeted muscle reinnervation, or TMR, and the name of an orthopaedic surgeon who could help — Daniel London, MD, at MU Health Care’s Missouri Orthopaedic Institute.
“The symptoms patients can have after an amputation can be quite debilitating,” London said. “These phantom limb pains and sensations affect up to 50% of people who have an amputation, and the pain can be life-altering.”
Dr. London specializes in hand and microvascular surgery as well as chronic nerve injuries. His understanding of how the body’s nerves work, and his ability to make tiny cuts and changes to nerve and muscle tissues, mean he is also an expert at relieving post-amputation nerve pain through procedures like TMR.
“We know that, when nerves are cut, they love to form neuromas, which can cause feelings like end of the nerve is an end live wires of electricity,” London said. “Neuromas are these balls of nerve tissue that can be significantly uncomfortable for patients, and that’s what happened to Eileen.”
London met with Eileen and Robert in early November of 2024, almost two years to the day since the crash. She had been diagnosed with a lesion and a neuroma in her peroneal nerve, which runs along the outside of the knee and leg, and London was confident that her neuroma and phantom limb symptoms could be treated.
Eileen and Robert decided during that meeting to move forward with TMR surgery. Eileen remembers feeling so hopeless that she was willing to try anything to get rid of the pain.
“While I was recovering, I would pull back because I was anticipating pain,” Eileen said. “I love cooking for my family, and I couldn’t stand in the kitchen or pick my grandkids up because I would feel pain or I expected to be in pain.”
In December, Eileen and Robert made a long round-trip drive to Columbia. During the two-hour surgery, London removed Eileen’s neuroma and used tiny instruments and a microscope to attach the two branches of her peroneal nerve to nearby motor nerves that were powering unused muscle tissue.
This process — reinnervation — gives the nerves a new “job,” signaling to the brain that they are once again connected to functioning tissue. That helps reduce pain and prevents new symptomatic neuromas from forming.
“The fact that we can offer this at MU Health Care I think is huge,” London said. “It’s a real example of how we can take care of complex problems by bringing together specialists in multiple areas. I love this surgery because for patients like Eileen, they realize that an amputation doesn't mean that you need to stop doing the things you like doing. You can continue to have those hobbies and activities.”
Eileen had two follow-up appointments with London, the second by telehealth because her recovery was going so well. Six weeks after TMR, she was fitted for a new prosthetic socket — and this time, she wasn’t afraid to move.
She no longer expects pain when getting out of bed, camping, entertaining family and picking up her grandkids, who love having a “robot grandma.”
Eileen’s surgery has given the Wards the ability to check off bucket list items that once seemed impossible — a secret trip to Canada, wine tasting in California. Before TMR, even a plane ride would have been too painful.
“TMR is important to me because amputees don’t have to hurt like that,” Eileen said. “There is a way to ease some of the pain. The surgery has given me my life back. I'm grateful, I’m thankful, I am impressed. I don't have enough words to say what Dr. London has done — he changed everything about being an amputee for me.”