If it feels like you’re in need a renewed focus on life and work, there’s nothing like four months of forced monotony to spur some inner reflection.

 

That was the case for Michael Manning, MD, for whom a shattered ankle in 2007 turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After more than a dozen years as a practicing anesthesiologist in Jackson, he emerged from temporary disability with a new calling to pursue.

 

“I was tired of anesthesia, and I think the Lord used those four months of sitting still to prepare me for a change,” said Manning, who opened Mississippi Vein Institute in 2008. “It gave me a lot of time to think about what I want to do.”

 

His choice to venture into the specialty of phlebology — a relatively young discipline focusing on venous diseases — was born of a search for work that would relate well to the training he already had and would provide a service that’s increasingly in demand as the population ages.

 

Plus, he was looking for a new connection with patients — a more-tangible feeling that he was really helping people. Now, each time a patient gives heartfelt thanks for restoring their legs from problems like varicose or spider veins, his decision is confirmed.

 

“As an anesthesiologist, I had a ton of vacation time and made a lot of money — but it just didn’t fulfill me,” Manning said. “Now I work harder and the pace is so much faster, but I love it a hundred times more.”

 

A native of Drew, Manning received his medical degree at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, followed by an internship at Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. He completed a residency in anesthesia and interventional pain management at Wake Forest University before returning to Mississippi and entering private practice.

 

Manning had instituted the pain-management program at Methodist Hospital in Jackson and served as president of both the Mississippi Society of Anesthesiologists and of the Physicians Anesthesia Group at St. Dominic’s Hospital when his injury suddenly took him out of the loop.

 

It hardly seemed warranted by such a short fall — a mere three feet from a ladder, but sure enough, his ankle was not merely broken but shattered. He spent the next 100 days wearing an external fixator to support his ankle while it healed in suspension.

 

“It was like having a cage on the outside of my leg to hold the ankle in place,” he said, recalling it with dread. “If you die and go to hell, the first thing Satan’s going to do is strap you in one of those things.”

 

Nevertheless, the experience forced him to slow down and take stock, and gave him time to research a new specialty that could give his career more interest and inspiration. Phlebology seemed like a perfect fit, given the training and skills he already had.

 

“You have to be skilled at sedating people — starting IVs and lines and accessing veins,” he said. “The procedure to treat varicose veins is done using ultrasound guidance, which we use a lot in anesthesiology, too.”

 

To learn the minimally invasive procedures that give today’s venous-disease patients an alternative to traditional surgery, Manning sought training under Dr. John Kingsley of the Alabama Vascular and Vein Center in Birmingham, a pioneer and leader in the field. Kingsley even brought members of his own clinic to Jackson for a couple of days to help Manning’s fledgling center get off the ground.

 

The first year of Mississippi Vein Institute was an intense one for Manning, who worked 100-hour weeks to maintain his anesthesiology practice while building up his new business by seeing patients on Saturdays. He switched over to vein-treatment work full-time in September 2009.

 

Instrumental in setting up the new center has been his wife, Scarlette, a medical-records administrator who had taken time off to raise their three children: John, 15, Jacob, 13, and Ashley, 9. His wife joined him in the new venture which employs six other people, most of them long-time friends.

 

Today, Manning is board certified in phlebology as well as anesthesiology and interventional pain management. He’s performing 50 to 60 endovenous procedures each month and aims to break ground this summer on a new 400,000-square-foot clinic in Madison.

 

The new practice has taken off thanks to referrals from physicians as well as those from patients to their friends and family. Manning also gets the word out about his services through public-speaking engagements, print and television advertising and through the clinic’s website.

 

For the treatment of varicose veins, Manning employs endovenous laser ablation to destroy the vein causing varicose veins, then surgically removes the varicose veins through small incisions. Most people can return to work on the third day. Previous treatment options like “vein stripping,” a surgical procedure requiring general anesthesia, came with a high failure rate and a longer recovery time, he said.

 

Among varicose-vein sufferers, some have been living with venous ulcers on their legs for as long as 20 to 30 years — only to be healed in a matter of two to three weeks after the procedure, he said. Manning also treats spider veins through sclerotherapy, and has seen patients as young as 20 and as old as 92 since his new practice began.

 

 “When we fix someone’s leg, we take them back in time,” he said. “They start working out again, they start going to parties or to the beach. These people come in and hug on me and tell me the difference it’s made in their lives. I missed that as an anesthesiologist, and in the end, that’s what gives you gratification in what you do.”