St. Catherine Hospital’s Wound & Ostomy Clinic encourages patients to ring a bell when their wounds heal.
For Kevin Kinnard, that exciting moment couldn’t have seemed further away in September of 2019 when he watched as wound care specialists removed bandages above his left ankle in the outpatient clinic.
Five months earlier, he and his wife, Marla, looked on in horror as a blemish became an open wound. It soon tripled in size and led to hospitalization, Home Health care with IV-infused antibiotics and a potential amputation.
“I could barely walk,” Kinnard recalls as Podiatrist John Rachoy, DPM, examined results of the first Apligraf® cellular skin graft he applied to a hockey puck-sized venous ulcer in the hospital’s Wound & Ostomy outpatient clinic. Apligraf is made out of living cells and proteins to replicate human skin.
The wound was nearly closed with a thin layer of skin. Rachoy explained that the pink edges around the perimeter were a good thing; it meant that there was blood flow to the wound.
“It’s a blessing,” Kinnard says, admitting that he had no idea how serious the wound was until his primary doctor asked if he wanted to keep his foot. “The entire staff has been terrific. We are so grateful.”
When healthy skin gets wounded or damaged, the proteins, cells and growth factors in the skin tell the body to regrow and rebuild new skin. This is the normal wound healing process.
However, with certain diseases such as diabetes or circulation issues, the healing cycle sometimes breaks down. This can result in a sore or ulcer that will not heal.
St. Catherine Hospital wound and foot care certified registered nurse Suzanne Wirtz, says patients who receive these unique, bilayered skin grafts for their wounds tend to have better outcomes.
“Their wounds heal quicker and their quality of life improves,” Wirtz says.
“It promotes wound healing and dramatically decreases the time a wound is open,” Rachoy says. “It can eliminate a patient’s need for surgery and improve their quality of life.”
“Offering technologies such as the Apligraf procedure, along with highly-skilled wound and foot-care therapists gives patients with persistent non-healing wounds every advantage to regain quality of life through successful wound rehabilitation,” says Leo Correa, St. Catherine Hospital CEO.
For more information about wound care at the hospitals of Community Healthcare System, visit COMHS.org/services/therapy-services.
