SALEM, Conn. (WTNH) — Nancy Rodgers of Salem has always been a active woman, but a scare a few years ago threatened to interrupt that lifestyle.

In 2011, Rodgers had a successful knee replacement, and then underwent a revision surgery.

In 2018, she split the bone on the tibia.

“I think I just hit my foot when you walk on the floor or something so it split,” Rodgers said.

She developed a knee infection that would not go away.

“Then, I was told that I was probably going to lose my leg,” Rodgers said. “I was going to have to amputate it, that was my only option, and I, very dark, very dark place I did not want that.”

That’s when she decided to get a second opinion. That next orthopedic surgeon recommended the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, which led Nancy to her surgeon Dr. Mathias Bostrom.

Bostrom told her she’d be able to keep her leg.

“We took away a large portion of her knee cap and her extensor mechanism, but at the same time that’s where the infection was looming and that’s why we’re able to be so successful,” Bostrom said.

With the infection gone, doctors made Rodgers a knee hinge, then performed a procedure called a a muscle flap using her calf muscle. Bostrom says this was not the first time he had treated a situation like Rodger’s.

“I call myself ‘the clean-up crew,’ and that’s what a place like HSS is all about,” he said. “We have the resources to take care of these problems.”

Today, Rodgers remains mobile, enjoying time with her family. She has her own advice for those facing a tough medical journey.

“Absolutely get a second opinion,” she said. “The surgeon up here was telling me this was going to be my only option, and it was just not an answer that I was going to accept.”