YRMC Wound Care Center speeds up healing for patients

Jerry Suggs will celebrate his 75th birthday this week, and if he has it his way, he'd like to go out to dinner and then eat a huge bowl of homemade peach cobbler and vanilla bean ice cream.

One might conclude the 22-year Navy veteran has earned that right, having undergone a triple bypass, multiple joint replacements, a below-the-knee leg amputation, several vascular surgeries in his other leg and surviving prostate cancer.

And last year he was at risk of losing his good leg due to circulation problems and a wound on his foot that would not heal.

After receiving care at Yuma Regional Medical Center's Wound Care Center in the hyperbaric chamber for 28 days, Suggs was able to save his leg.

The YRMC Wound Care Center is an outpatient, hospital-based service that features three hyperbaric chambers that heal problematic wounds.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is a treatment in which the patient breathes 100 percent oxygen while enclosed in a pressurized acrylic chamber, which simulates being approximately 33 feet under water.

Patients receive individualized treatment profiles that may include infectious disease management, physical therapy, diabetes education, nutritional management, vascular evaluation, laboratory evaluation, pain management, nuclear medicine, radiology and debridement, the removal of dead, damaged or infected tissue to improve the healing potential.

In the chamber, patients can talk on the telephone, watch television or a DVD or just relax in silence.

Suggs wasn't very eager to go to his first two-hour session in the hyperbaric chamber because he wasn't sure if he would see any results. After a couple sessions, he changed his mind when he saw that not only was his foot improving but also his entire body.

He said that the 100 percent oxygen level in the hyperbaric chamber healed a radiation burn on his colon that he received while being treated for his prostate cancer.

Dr. Matt Dickson at the Wound Care Center said, "We get them to heal from the inside out."

Dickson said the wounds their patients typically have would take one to two years to heal on their own, but with hyperbaric oxygen treatment they can heal in a mere 25 days.

Although the average treatment is 25 days, some patients might need to stay longer, depending on how fast their wounds heal.

The Wound Care Center has a 91 percent cure rate, which can make a world of difference for those who, despite all odds, get to walk out of the center with their leg intact.

Dickson said the further along a wound is, the harder it is to heal. He emphasizes the importance of calling your doctor and making an appointment if you have a wound that has not healed in two weeks.

He said, "85 percent of amputees start out with a little wound on their toe or foot, so it's a big deal to get people into the hospitals that we can treat the wound early and aggressively."

Jerry's wife, Joy, said they couldn't have chosen a better place for medical care - "and that's very important when you're our age."

Referrals are not needed in order to be seen at the Wound Care Center. To make an appointment, call 336-2030.

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FYI
*Each year, approximately 6 million Americans will suffer from problematic wounds caused by diabetes, circulatory problems and other conditions.
*Fifteen percent of all diabetics will develop problematic wounds.
*Patients with diabetes have a 15-fold increase in the risk of amputation, and approximately 82,000 diabetics will undergo amputations each year.