Case Study: Charles Collins
Charles Collins of north Georgia used to drive past a Global Wound Care billboard on his way to visit specialists in Athens, Georgia. Charles suffered from diabetic ulcers on the bottoms of both feet. "I went through several other doctors," says Charles, "and there was one who wanted to amputate the fronts of both feet. I told him that I would just as soon keep my feet, and [amputation] would only be the last resort. Well he said, 'This is the last resort.' I said I was going to try something else, and that's when I called Dr. Turner."
In February of 2004, Dr. Turner began treating Charles's ulcers. First, he insisted that Charles stay off his feet and wear surgical boots to raise the arch of his foot and take stress off of the problem area. Other doctors had not explained to Charles the importance of this critical step. Dr. Turner also identified and removed a small portion of the bone in one toe. Charles was seeing progress in all his wounds except for one, which had developed a staph infection. When this infection became apparent, Dr. Turner had Charles admitted to the hospital for an aggressive course of antibiotics.
"While I was in the hospital, [Dr. Turner] would check me out and put me in the hyperbaric chamber." Charles bone scan in the hospital indicated no osteom y litis (bone infection), which Charles attributes to the small portion of bone that Dr. Turner had removed during earlier treatments.
After the hospital stay, Dr. Turner treated the wound with Regranex and skin grafts. "That filled in very nicely. It virtually healed up totally by the end of April, first of May... [The wound] is healed up right now and looks pretty good."
Recently, Dr. Turner treated one of Charles's ulcers with silver while it was still in its early stages. After only a week and a half, Charles says, "It looks really good—it looks almost healed."