A Life-Affirming Visit to MLK Hospital: Old Friends, New Ones, and a Community of Healing #ActAgainstAmputation

The first person I saw during my September 3 visit to MLK Community Healthcare was someone I certainly hadn’t expected to find there: my longtime friend and frequent co-author, Dr. William Tettelbach, visiting from Utah. By a wonderful coincidence, he was at MLK’s wound healing unit at the very same time. What a way to begin.

An old friend, and a very warm welcome

There is something especially joyful about running into an old friend in a place devoted to work you both care deeply about. William and I have shared a great deal of work in wound healing over the years. Finding ourselves together at MLK made an already much-anticipated visit even more special.

That unexpected reunion set the tone for a spectacular day. The MLK team gave me a grand tour and made me feel completely at home. I came away grateful for their generosity—and genuinely energized by what they are doing for the people of South Los Angeles.

Thank you to the people making it happen

My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Elaine Batchlor, MLK’s chief executive officer and a rheumatologist by training, for the welcome and for her leadership in expanding access to high-quality care. To see her and the team taking this kind of time out of their day — to literally walk the length and breadth of the hospital– was just ❤️

Thank you, too, to Dr. Jorge Reyno, senior vice president of population health; Dr. David Tobey, vascular surgeon and chair of perioperative services; and Dr. Nubar Petikyan, clinical director of pharmacy. It was a pleasure to spend time with colleagues whose work brings so many essential parts of care together.

And a very special thank-you to my podiatric colleague, Dr. Myron Hall. Seeing fellow foot docs contributing to this community’s care is a particular thrill.

To the entire staff: thank you for the tour, your time, and the warmth with which you welcomed me. The photographs capture some of the smiles. They cannot quite capture how good it felt to be there.

The community is the reason

For those of us working in diabetic foot care and limb preservation, the purpose of the work extends well beyond the wound. It is about helping people keep moving, stay connected to their families, and continue living the lives that matter to them.

Readers may remember our June 2026 post on MLK’s diabetes program, alongside our earlier coverage of the Los Angeles Times reporting on limb loss in South L.A. Those stories provide important context for this visit. I have linked them below, along with the Times’ June 2026 follow-up and an older piece on the “Toe and Flow” approach. Spending time with the MLK team brought that continuing story into wonderfully human focus.

MLK’s coordinated diabetes care brings together medical care, pharmacy, education, and ongoing support. That work offers an important backdrop to the visit. But what I will remember most is the opportunity to meet the people doing it—and the sense of possibility I took home.

Seeing what this team is building, and the difference they are making for their community, was life-affirming. That is the word I keep coming back to.

William, what a wonderful surprise. Dr. Batchlor, Jorge, David, Nubar, Myron, and the whole MLK family: thank you for making me feel at home and for reminding me, so vividly, why we do this work. Onward and upward, indeed!