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HealthSense - Summer 2012

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Saving Fleeta's foot Fleeta Mason did not receive good news from a doctor about her foot ulcer that wasn't healing. "I was told my left foot was going to have to be amputated near my knee," says Fleeta, a retired elementary teacher originally from Neosho. She and her family decided to get a second opinion. A friend of her son-in-law's recommended she see Dr. Larry Chase, medical director of the CoxHealth Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Center. "Dr. Chase saved my foot. From that day forward I have been a patient of his," she says. "Fleeta has type 2 diabetes. Diabetes can cause poor The CoxHealth Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Center has earned a three- year Hyperbaric Facility Reaccreditation with Distinction from the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). The center is the first in southwest Missouri to earn this accreditation, which says the CoxHealth center has met or exceeded standards for safety, clinical expertise and quality care. Dr. Larry Chase at the CoxHealth Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Care Center. circulation in the feet as well as neuropathy or lack of sensation," explains Dr. Chase. "A person with diabetes can damage their skin and not know it because they do not experience the pain sensation. This can lead to an open sore or ulcer." Fleeta's treatments at the center have included antibiotics to treat or prevent infection, surgery and offloading, which is taking pressure off the wound when it is healing. Fleeta wears custom footwear to reduce the risk of more foot ulcers. She also follows her diet closely and works with her primary care physician, Dr. Steven Daugherty, to control her diabetes. "It is important to prevent amputations in people with diabetes because the risk of losing the other limb increases. Another reason is that three to five years later, 50 percent of people who have had an amputation and have diabetes do not survive," explains Dr. Chase. For more information about their services, call 269-9950 or listen to Dr. Chase's HealthSense podcast at coxhealth.com by searching "hyperbaric medicine and wound care." coxhealth.com 15

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