Case Study: Mary Ann Evans
Mary Ann Evans, of Anderson, SC, is a diabetic. When she developed a diabetic ulcer on her toe, her general care physician referred her to a surgeon, who prescribed a course of physical therapy for the wound. "They put my foot in a whirlpool for a while," says Mary Ann, "but my ulcer got really bad—it turned fiery red—and they [the staff at the physical therapy facility] got scared. They wouldn't do anything else with me and sent me back to the surgeon. That really scared me but I didn't know what else to do."
Next, the surgeon prescribed antibiotic pills, and told Mary Ann that she might lose her toe. Frightened, unwilling to have an amputation, and unsure about her alternatives, Mary Ann continued taking the antibiotics and waited.
After a trip to the emergency room for her toe, Mary Ann was resolved to find another course of action. "I waited until June but by that time it was almost too late, I was about ready to lose my toe." Then she remembered a newspaper ad for Global Wound Care, which she had seen months earlier in the newspaper. "My sister-in-law lives in Royston, and I asked her, 'Do you know anything about [Dr. Turner]?' And she said 'Yes! I love him to death! I worked with him at the hospital years ago. Mary Ann, you need to get something done right away and he would be the one to take care of it.'"
After examining Mary Ann's wound over the course of two weeks, Dr. Turner had Mary Ann admitted to the hospital, where she received an aggressive course of intravenous antibiotics for 14 days. “After 14 days in the hospital, he cut my toe open, and I had a little piece of a broken bone in the tip of my toe. He removed that, cleaned my toe... and I want you to know, my foot was well within six weeks."
Since that episode, Mary Ann has used Global Wound Care's hyperbaric chamber to treat one other ulcer that developed on the bottom of her foot. She has recently started near-infrared light therapy to reduce the numbness in her feet and legs, caused by diabetic neuropathy.
Mary Ann's favorite part of her treatment from Global Wound Care is the staff. "His staff is excellent, sweet, and helpful, and they really care whether you get well or not, just like he does. I think a lot of times that means more to a patient than anything — just knowing that somebody really does care whether your foot gets well or not."