Transformations
Trauma Recovery Virginia prosthetist helps a patient start over after a tragic car accident, limb salvage surgery, and decision to amputate
Phillip Call, CPO
The Transformations column features the success story of an O&P clinician who has worked with an inspiring or challenging patient. This month, we speak with Phillip Call, CPO, about Ashley Holdren, who lost a child and ultimately lost a limb after a 2019 car accident.
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Ashley Holdren, who was severely injured in a car crash, chose amputation of her right leg below the knee after limb salvage surgery failed to ameliorate her pain.
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O&P Almanac February 2024
or 39-year-old Ashley Holdren, the decision to undergo amputation of her right leg below the knee in 2021 was one of the easier decisions she’s had to make over the past few years. The surgery was the culmination of two years of pain and distress in her foot—but just one of 20 surgeries she has endured since 2019, when she survived a horrific car accident. “It was a very tough situation,” says Phillip Call, CPO, who fit her with a prosthesis right after amputation. Call joined Virginia Prosthetics & Orthotics six years ago, after earning a bachelor’s degree in management at Virginia Tech and a master’s in O&P at the University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. He currently serves as team lead and clinical manager at the Roanoke office. The sheer volume of surgeries and injuries Holdren was still recovering from made
fitting Holdren with a prosthesis an even more challenging task. “She had to endure several reconstructive surgeries,” says Call. But he worked closely with his patient and took both her physical and emotional state into consideration to provide Holdren with a critical step in returning to an active life.
Unimaginable Trauma
Four years ago, Holdren, a single mother, suffered a seizure while driving with her two children in Bedford County, Virginia. During the crash, her 6-year-old daughter, Grace, lost her life, and her then-8-yearold daughter, Hope, survived with injuries. Call was first introduced to the family when he fit Hope with orthoses for two broken femurs. The next 10 days post-accident were a blur for Holdren, as she was in and out of consciousness. Her own mother suffered a PHOTOS: PHILLIP CALL, CPO; SANDRA FIKE PHOTOGRAPHY