Former Boxer Bounces Back After Vascular Disease

By Spencer Watson

Guillermo Escobar, M.D., makes sure Frederick Jackson’s left leg is still healing nicely after surgeries treating the main artery and vein in his leg

Guillermo Escobar, M.D., makes sure Frederick Jackson’s left leg is still healing nicely after surgeries treating the main artery and vein in his leg

Jackson has been active all his life. He started boxing when he was 10 years old with nine of his cousins.

“My uncles started a team,” Jackson said. “We would practice at an old church on 33rd street. We stayed busy.”

Jackson went on to become a talented boxer. He says he was a pro by the age of 18.

“I had 37 professional fights. I won 30,” Jackson said.

Known as Freddie “The Pebble” Jackson, he was fighting all over the country in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

“I was from Little Rock. A pebble is a piece of the rock,” Jackson said. “One day after coming from a fight in Houston, a newspaper reporter wrote ‘The Pebble has hit The Rock.’ The name stuck.”

Now 54, Jackson has long since retired and now trains young boxers. He has remained active. The pain in his left leg started in 2009. It was so severe Jackson said he couldn’t even walk a city block.

“It was indescribable,” Jackson said. “It was hellacious. I would holler, moan and groan. Sometimes I would cry, literally, cry.”

The pain would start in his lower leg and eventually make its way to his hip.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Jackson said. “I went to a free clinic and they immediately rushed me to the emergency room at UAMS.”

That’s where he met Guillermo Escobar, M.D., vascular surgeon and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“He had peripheral vascular disease with a blocked iliac artery and a very tight narrowing of his iliac vein, known as May-Thurner syndrome,” Escobar said.

May-Thurner Syndrome is caused when one of the large veins that drains blood out of the legs (the iliac vein) narrows and leads to swelling and even clots. Iliac artery stenosis is a disease caused by atherosclerosis narrowing the blood vessels leading into the legs.

It’s a rare combination to have both at the same time, Escobar said. “Both are relatively common. But having the two conditions at the same time is very uncommon.”

“We had to treat both the vein and the artery,” Escobar said.

The challenge was to figure out where to start. Escobar decided to begin with putting a stent in the vein. Opening it first would improve outflow and stop the swelling and some of the discomfort.

The iliac vein had to heal before Jackson’s second surgery to place a stent in his iliac artery to improve the flow into it. Escobar prescribed Jackson blood thinners and waited two and a half months to make sure the vein had mended.

“That was one of the hardest things for Mr. Jackson,” Escobar said with a smile. “He’s a very active man and did not want to wait. But the way we did it worked out very well.”

Once the artery and the vein were fixed, Jackson had a dramatic improvement and couldn’t be happier. Now that he’s better, Jackson has continued work at a boxing club in Little Rock he established. He’s hoping to incorporate tutoring in the club for children in sixth-12th grades.

“I feel great now,” Jackson said. “Thanks to Dr. Escobar. He has the best bedside manner of any doctor I’ve ever had. He is not only a surgeon. I consider him a friend and I would recommend him to anyone.