Open wound not healing for years after ankle surgery?

I fell on December 29, 2012, shattered my ankle, broke my fibula, and fractured my heel. I went to the ER, my ankle was set, and I was sent home to wait for the swelling to go down before surgery was possible. On Dec 31 2012, I had an open reduction and reconstruction of my ankle. I had to have a plate, pins, buttons, and a tight rope for the reconstruction.

This led to two wounds, a long one on the outside of my leg and a smaller one on the inside. Several weeks passed, the outside wound healed perfectly while the wound on the inside of my ankle showed little change. When I expressed my concern to the doctor, he suggested we give it more time. Keep in mind this is 12+ weeks post-op and I am still unable to apply pressure on my foot.

The wait for my wound continued, my orthopedic surgeon released me to a wound care specialist in his practice. This doctor tried several different options to promote healing, all of which failed. Finally, 9 months post op I went to my family doctor to request a referral.

My family doctor referred me to the top wound care specialist in my area who immediately suggested that I have as much of the metal in my ankle removed as possible. After several attempts to find a new surgeon, I was left with no choice but to go back to the initial surgeon because no other surgeon would touch his work.

When I called the first surgeon’s office I was informed that he no longer worked for that practice and had opened his own. After finally reaching him, he was more than happy to do the surgery for me. The practice he had opened however did not accept my insurance so he offered to do the surgery pro bono.

We had discussed the potential for a skin graft to help promote healing but had never agreed on it. My surgery was scheduled for Sept 20, 2013. When I awoke after the surgery I discovered that he had not only removed what metal he could, but he had also taken a graft from my leg only about 3 inches from the initial wound. I found this very strange.

The skin graft healed my wound, but then we were left with the wound from where the graft was taken. The surgeon tried for another 6 months to get this wound to heal before I went back to the wound care specialist to get a second opinion.

The cause for my still open wound? The surgeon instructed me to clean my wound daily with peroxide which was essentially eating the new tissue as it was trying to grow. The entire healing process has taken almost 2 years. Does this sound like a case for malpractice? Any perspective you can give on this would be appreciated. Thank you.