OMAHA, Neb. -- An Iowa woman goes from a wheelchair to walking thanks to a new treatment to break up blood clots in her legs.

It's a procedure that was just recently approved and this minimally invasive procedure gives patients a new option.

The first time Barbara Sipherd came into to Bryan LGH East Medical Center she needed wheelchair.

Severe blood clots in her leg left it swollen and in pain.

Sipherd said, “It was very scary. You hear people die from blood clots. It was very a scary situation.”

But with the help of a new device doctors were able to bust the clots and she was able to walk out of the hospital in just a few hours.

Sipherd said, “It was incredible, to be able to stand again and walk around.”

It's called the Trellis Infusion System. A catheter is inserted into the vein. Two balloons trap the clot where large doses of medication are delivered. Then it starts to vibrate to open up the vein.

Doctor Michael Budler said, “It takes only takes about 10 minutes to dissolve the clot then it liquefies and we're basically able to suck the clot out.”

Doctors say it can be much more effective than the traditional method of infusing clot busting medicine to the whole body. In the past, patients have to stay in an intensive care unit for two to three days, while they recovered and often times developed life-threatening complications.

Budler said, “The whole body would get the high doses of TPA and you have bleeding complications.”

In Sipherd's case the traditional method didn't work. The first hospital she went to didn't know about this new procedure.

“I was bed-ridden and I was on pain meds every four hours,” said Sipherd.

Nationally about 800,000 people suffer from this kind of deep vein thrombosis.

It's the same thing that side-lined former Husker Quarterback Tommie Frazier for most of his junior season.

Budler said, “This could have given him the Heisman he should have won.”

Sipherd, meantime, is just happy to be able to live a normal life and walk out of a hospital.

For more information on this procedure click on the link below.

New Clot Procedure"