After a search spanning 20 years and many miles, Rahway resident Martha Goff finally found a local solution to a nonhealing wound.
After a search spanning 20 years and many miles, Rahway resident Martha Goff finally found a local solution to a nonhealing wound.
WHEN MS. GOFF was 49, a small vein in her lower right leg burst, breaking the skin and causing a brief, geyser-like flow of blood. The wound periodically reopened in subsequent years.
“I spent lots of time off my feet keeping my leg elevated above my heart, which basically kept me homebound,” says the now 70-yearold retiree. “When the wound reopened, it sometimes became infected.”
Treatment at wound care centers in other towns helped, but Ms. Goff found driving back and forth from her home in Rahway to seek care tedious. By the time another flare-up occurred nearly five years ago, a more convenient option existed: the Center for Wound Healing at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway.
THE POWER OF ‘FAMILY’
Ms. Goff visited the center in two stints during recent years and was diagnosed with venous stasis, the accumulation of blood in the veins of the legs (see “When Gravity Wins” below). During the first treatment period, Ms. Goff’s medical team rid the wound of a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection and successfully applied a biologic skin substitute to the wound.
The lesion later reopened following back surgery, so Ms. Goff returned to the Center for Wound Healing. The team used new products to dress the wound and recommended she wear a compression boot for portions of the day. Now, Ms. Goff is completely healed and able to get out and enjoy more of life.
“It was beautiful to watch everyone at the Center for Wound Healing work so well together—like dealing with family,” she says. “The providers who cared for me said, ‘Come back and see us, but you don’t need to be treated.’ Those were some of the best words I could have heard.”
“As your wound is healing, they [the staff at the Center for Wound Healing] are your biggest cheerleaders.”