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San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr talks about dealing with lymphedema. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer.

San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr talks about dealing with lymphedema. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer. The scar is where doctors were able to transplant lymph vessels from other parts of her body to her arm.

San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr talks about dealing with lymphedema. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer.

San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr demonstrates how she wraps her arm with bandages to help it drain. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer.

San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr demonstrates an arm cuff used to help it drain. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer.

San Antonio lawyer Cynthia Orr talks about dealing with lymphedema. Orr developed lymphedema, which she was at risk of as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during cancer treatment, when she cut her hand while slicing a carrot in her kitchen. It was nine years after her bout with breast cancer.

A San Antonio-based criminal defense lawyer who built her more-than-30-year career defending wrongfully convicted people is now taking on the nation’s health insurance system.

In April, Cynthia Orr lobbied Congress in support of the Lymphedema Treatment Act. The bill is on the U.S. House and Senate floors — labeled House Bill 3630 and Senate Bill 1315 — and gaining bipartisan support among lawmakers.

If passed, the legislation would have Medicare pay for compression garments used to prevent and treat lymphedema, a painful condition that affects 1 in 1,000 cancer patients. People with the condition experience severe swelling and can benefit from such treatment.

Orr considers herself a “professional problem-solver,” and when she learned that cancer survivors were needlessly suffering because they couldn’t afford prescribed compression garments, she took up the cause pro bono. She understands what people with lymphedema go through and why they need this treatment because she is one of them.

The high-profile lawyer recently secured backing from the San Antonio Bar Association and says she won’t stop until compression treatment is covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Then, she reasons, it would only be a matter of time before private insurance companies approve the doctor-prescribed treatment for their beneficiaries.

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Lymphedema is caused by a buildup of fluid that occurs when the lymphatic system is faulty or damaged. The condition can result from an injury or from having one’s lymph nodes removed as part of certain cancer treatments, which was the case for Orr.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, and despite having to travel regularly to MD Anderson in Houston for treatment, she largely kept her condition secret. She tried and won a federal terrorism case while undergoing chemotherapy.

Orr remembers a nurse explaining that her lifesaving surgery made her more susceptible to developing lymphedema, describing it as a “side effect,” but over the years, cancer became a distant memory.

That was until November 2020, when Orr nicked her left hand while cutting vegetables for dinner. In less than 24 hours, it swelled to more than twice its normal size. She knew immediately what was happening to her.

“They should call it something more serious than a side effect,” she said during an interview in her law office on the penthouse floor of the Tower Life building in downtown San Antonio.

Orr is accustomed to fighting for people getting a raw deal from the criminal justice system.

Orr was part of the legal team that argued for the release of Michael Morton, an innocent man who was convicted in 1987 for the murder of his wife in Williamson County.

On ExpressNews.com: Salt poisoning conviction of Corpus Christi mother reversed

She also helped Hannah Overton of Corpus Christi get her conviction overturned and secure her release after spending seven years behind bars. She was accused of the salt poisoning death of her 4-year-old son. A poster for a 2016 documentary based on the case hangs in Orr’s office.

Orr recently demonstrated how she wraps up her left arm with custom compression garments several times a day. The treatment is tedious, extending from the bottom of her fingers to her shoulder, but it’s necessary to minimize the painful swelling and to avoid the risk of a more severe disability.

Dr. Brian Fricke, director of the cancer rehabilitation division at UT Health San Antonio’s MD Anderson Mays Cancer Center and the only such specialist in South Texas, is treating Orr.

She was at high risk of developing lymphedema as a result of having nearly all the lymph nodes in her armpit removed during her cancer treatment, Fricke said.

“Then she had radiation treatment, as well, which further caused scarring and narrowing of the caliber of the lymphatic vessels that remained in her arm,” he said. “So when she cut her hand, that was sort of like the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Fricke said that while most people can fend off a minor infection from a cut with Neosporin, in Orr’s case it activated her lymphatic system to mount an immune response, which wasn’t able to mobilize properly.

The swelling in her left arm has since subsided with intensive decongestive therapy, though not as quickly as she hoped.

She was referred to Dr. Anton Fries, a reconstructive microsurgeon at UT Health San Antonio, who performed a delicate surgery to transplant lymph nodes from Orr’s stomach, removed laparoscopically, to her arm.

Orr appreciates that she’s fortunate to be able to afford and receive the medical care she needs. Many lymphedema patients go without compression treatment or are forced to ration their wraps, bandages and garments because health insurance companies do not cover them.

And for people with more advanced or more severe lymphedema, particularly those with lower extremity lymphedema, Fricke said, “something as simple as like a hangnail or ingrown fingernail or toenail” can become serious.

Historically, Fricke said, Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers have considered lymphedema to be a cosmetic problem.

“This is so far from the truth,” he said.

Yet pneumatic compression pumps, devices that cost Medicare $4,000 to $6,000, are covered. Meanwhile, Medicare pays when lymphedema patients end up in intensive care units or on intravenous antibiotics.

“It costs the entire health care system a whole lot of money for saving, you know, relative pennies on compression garments,” Fricke said.

Laura Garcia is a reporter at the San Antonio Express-News focused on health care. Previously, the South Texas native was the features editor and nonprofits reporter at the Victoria Advocate. She is president of the San Antonio Association of Hispanic Journalists, which gives scholarships to communications students and advocates for diversity in news.