Wound Care Center Provides High-Tech Healing

David Utecht, 76, is a camper. After retiring from 24 years of teaching at Sonora High School where he instructed students in the finer aspects of woodshop and electronics, David and his wife Laurel bought an RV and set out on the open road.

For the better part of 10 years, the Utechts spent 9 or 10 months out of the year traveling across the United States visiting family and soaking up the sunshine in such places as Arizona, Florida, Minnesota and everywhere in between, spending quite a lot of their time staying at various private campgrounds along the way. On several occasions, David and Laurel would serve as camp hosts while staying in one location; Laurel took care of the office and David cleaned the swimming pools.

David loves the warm weather. Shorts and sandals are his standard attire during the warm months. He also loves a cool dip in the pool on hot days. But something happened last June that prevented him from wearing his sandals and from getting in a swimming pool.

“I was out at camp and one evening when I looked down, I saw a big ol’ sore on the top of my foot,” David recalls. About the size of his thumbnail and very painful, David had what’s called an arterial ulcer.

When the sore failed to respond to ordinary forms of treatment for more than two months, David’s family physician referred him to Sonora Regional Medical Center’s Center for Wound Care. He met weekly with registered nurses and physicians specially trained in aggressive wound healing treatments.

Arterial ulcers are most often a byproduct of peripheral arterial disease, which causes a lack of blood supply in a person’s legs and lower extremities.

“David’s ulcer was due to arterial insufficiency—or a lack of blood supply,” says Dr. Eden Smith, medical director at the Center for Wound Care. “Having enough blood circulating throughout the entire body is important because it is that blood flow that carries the oxygen molecules needed for tissue to stay alive.”

In David’s case, not getting enough blood to the tissues in his foot caused him to develop a small wound. Without the benefit of having an adequate amount of blood circulation to carry oxygen molecules to the tissues of his foot, David’s wound just would not heal.
For a wound to heal, the body naturally activates many processes, and oxygen must be at the center of those processes for a wound to heal completely. Oxygen allows a wound to heal by helping to develop new skin cells and to fight infection.

Why is it important
At any given time, nearly six million Americans suffer from problem wounds of many kinds. Some are associated with complications from diabetes or other related vascular disorders like David’s. Other types can include pressure sores and traumatic wounds.

“If a wound like David’s is allowed to persist, it will typically get worse and will likely become infected and progress to the point that an amputation of the affected limb may be required,” says Dr. Smith.

Several factors can put you at risk for arterial insufficiency related wounds: chief among these are smoking and diabetes, but having high cholesterol can also become an important risk factor.

The Center for Wound Care takes a comprehensive approach to wound management and utilizes the latest in wound treatment techniques based on proven clinical studies. Staffed by four physicians, two registered nurses, a hyberbaric oxygen therapy technician and a medical assistant, the Center for Wound Care also works in conjunction with vascular surgeons, cardiologists and orthopedic surgeons to restore blood flow and help to heal wounds.

After making weekly visits to the Center for just over two months, David’s wound was healed.

“[The nurses at the wound center] took super good care of me,” says David with a smile. “They did a great job.”

David Utecht is now “retired from being retired” but still loves the outdoors. Now he and Laurel go on shorter trips in their RV. And happily, David is back in his sandals.

The Center for Wound Care, a service of Sonora Regional Medical Center, is located at 12811 Covey Circle, Sonora. For more information, you can call them at 536-5196.