Charles Lang, a retired welder, was helping a friend with a shop project
last fall when a piece of the metal he was heating with a torch fell inside
his work boot.
“Before I could get my boot off, it had pretty well cooked my right
ankle,” Mr. Lang recalls.
The burn became a deep sore, causing Mr. Lang’s leg to become swollen
and painful. Some nights he couldn’t sleep. He tried over-the-counter
wound care products, but they didn’t work.
“I thought self-care would heal me,” Mr. Lang says. “But
it wasn’t working. Professional wound care was the answer.”
Experts at treating wounds Southeast Georgia Health System has two centers
that provide specialized wound care: the
Brunswick Campus Wound Care Center and the newer
Wound Care Center on the Camden Campus.
Mr. Lang learned about the Camden Campus Wound Care Center by chance when
he took a friend to see a doctor near the facility. Getting an appointment
was quick and easy, he says.
Edgar L. Rhodes II, M.D., is one of the wound care experts who treated Mr. Lang. It turned out
that Mr. Lang had an underlying condition called chronic venous insufficiency,
a problem with the leg veins that causes swelling of the lower leg and ankle.
“The swelling caused the wound healing to slow down,” Dr. Rhodes
explains. “We had to control the swelling.”
Mr. Lang’s treatments included wound
debridement, special dressings and compression stockings.
A wide array of treatments
Both of the Health System’s outpatient Wound Care Centers offer
specialized care for all types of chronic and slow-healing wounds, such as:
- Diabetic foot ulcers
- Wounds caused by poor circulation and
- vascular disorders
- Pressure sores
- Traumatic wounds
- Radiation wounds
“Our wound care experts have earned prestigious awards, including
a Center of Clinical Excellence Award at the Brunswick Campus,”
says Meredith Reilly, director of the Wound Care Center.
“That means we are in the top 10% of all wound care centers for our
comprehensive heal rate and key performance indicators,” she adds.
Both
Wound Care Centers provide advanced treatments and techniques that can improve quality of
life and help prevent the need for limb amputations.
“If you have a wound that is not healing, come in and we’ll
examine it,” Ms. Reilly says. “We have excellent success rates,
and our job is to get you healed, healthy and back to enjoying your life
again.”
Both of the Health System’s state-of-the-art Wound Care Centers offer
treatments not typically found in a doctor’s office — including
special wound dressings, bioengineered skin grafts and skin substitutes,
special casts that take pressure off of wounds, and hyperbaric oxygen
therapy (HBOT). With HBOT, patients relax inside a chamber and breathe
pure oxygen, which promotes healing. HBOT is an option for certain wounds,
including many diabetic ulcers.
‘Having fun again’
Now that his wound is healed, Mr. Lang is back to enjoying many of his
favorite activities. “I’m riding a bike, shooting basketballs,
swimming at the pool and hitting golf balls,” he says. “I’m
having fun again.” Mr. Lang credits God and the Wound Care Center
team for healing his wound. “They take care of you,” he says.