Hello, My sister is 57, and has been a diabetic for about 20 years. Non-insulin dependent. She does not eat right and never exercises. She was admitted to the hospital on Dec. 16th for shortness of breath and chest pain. The ctscan showed a blood clot in her thoracic aorta that had already damaged one kidney, her spleen, gallbladder and now intestines. She fell in the hospital which caused a chunk of the clot to move to her leg. Surgery was done and the clot was removed from her leg. The remaining part of the clot in her aorta was dissolved with massive doses of blood thinners. Since then blood clots keep forming in her feet and travel to upward and another surgery on her other foot was done to remove three clots and it was successful. Her red platelet count has been over one million since Dec. 16th......well it goes down to 500K sometimes but it is usually over one million. The surgeon does not want to operate anymore because the clots will just keep coming back. A hematologist was called in and administered a brand new med to get her platelets down but it doesn t work. Her surgeon said he is 54 years old and has never seen a case of diabetes so out of control. He said she has the heart of an 85 year old. Now she has dry gangrene in her big toe. The drs. are trying to decide what to do with her. She has psychological problems as well...always has. Our family has all abandoned her because we are tired of walking on egg shells and being manipulated. She is an RN btw and she worked in a mental hospital for 27 years. She quit her job in April 13 because she said the other nurses are trying to kill me. Ugh! She has NO health insurance and has been living on her savings for almost one year and I have no idea how much money she has. If/when she is discharged the caseworker said no nursing home will take her because she has no insurance. Even though she only worked 4 months in 13 she does not qualify for medicare and it takes 3-4 months to get on disability. The hospital said if/when she is healthy enough to be discharged she will be sent by cab home or if she still has her apt. to her apt. She can t stand or walk and uses bed pans. She kicks out the pt and ot people when they enter her room to get her on her feet and walk. She keeps talking about being homeless. She is all alone in the world and has no friends. I talk to her but I live across the country and there is no way I m going to stop my life to help someone who refuses to help themselves. My question is do you think she will survive much longer? Even if the toe is amputated won t it spread? Is it possible that it has already spread? No antibiotics are working to get rid of it.