Hospital rolls out wound care program

Deb Tobin said she didn’t think she would have any complications when getting a vein removed from her leg, but when her incision wouldn’t heal she consulted her physician.

“I was under the care of a different physician and he kind of threw everything at it that he knew to do, but he wasn’t gaining any headway,” she said.

Tobin’s doctor then referred her to Mountain View’s wound care program, where doctors recommended hyperbaric treatment.

“You don’t have a plastic surgeon come in or a doctor come in and just sow it up, it needed to heal from the bottom up,” said Tobin.

Wound care specialists Phil Hesse said the program consists of many different treatment options that support many different wound varieties.

Mountain View Hospital said this program is just one of many that it’s implemented to add to their overall patient care options. It said it plans to implement up-to-date and state-of-the-art equipment as a valued medical care facility.

“It ranges anywhere from traumatic wounds to surgical wounds or diabetic ulcerations,” said Hesse.

Hesse said hyperbaric treatment has been the biggest game changer for wound care, as it has helped prevent amputations and more severe treatments for wounds.

“Hyperbarics is a modality we use for many of the difficult to heal wounds. They are hypoxic and have low oxygen levels, that’s the reason that they aren’t healing well,” he said. “We put the patient in the chamber and then we pressurize the chamber with 100 percent oxygen.”