By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
GLASGOW — T.J. Samson Community Wound Care Center may be the best-kept secret in Glasgow, according to Vivian Franklin, RN coordinator for wound care at the facility.
Franklin spoke to a group of women at Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library recently about treatments the facility offers.
“We’re about 10 years old and a lot of people still say they don’t know we’re there, but at the outpatient wound center we treat people with non-healing wounds,” Franklin said. “You can have a surgical wound and it usually heals up pretty easily, but if you have old wounds that become chronic, meaning you’ve had them for a long time, those wounds are hard to heal.”
Wounds heal from a process. They start with one phase, then the second, third and fourth, according to Franklin. If they get stalled at one point and they don’t get to go through that healing process, that’s when the problem starts.
If a wound hasn’t healed in four weeks, additional treatment may be needed.
Nurses and doctors at the center treat everything from leg and foot ulcers to bed sores and bone infections.
Many diabetics are patients of the wound center because they are more prone to the development of these types of wounds, according to Franklin.
The facility has a hyperbaric chamber that creates a 100 percent oxygen atmosphere for the patient to promote wound healing. Multiple treatments are usually necessary in the chamber, she said.
One of the primary objectives is to increase blood supply to the wound area, but the most important thing is to recognize when the wound is not healing properly and get help quickly.
“It’s best to come early rather than later,” Franklin said.
