HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Summertime is here and many will be participating in various summer activities. But what happens if someone is injured? Today we have some Wound Care 101 tips.
Barry Stephens said his time as a Wound Care patient at Crestwood ended about 5 months ago. "It just kept getting worse over the next two months, and it was becoming alarming to me. I thought I was ad a chance of losing my foot. I'd never seen a wound like that or didn't even know they had wound care doctors."
Stephens said he is grateful that he connected with Crestwood because,"My leg got healed. I won't ever believe anything other than that." Crestwood Medical Center Osteopath Medicine Dr. Daniel Krautter explained that when it comes to wounds or injuries, age can definitely play a role. "You know, different medical conditions, whether in a child or an older adult, can change the prognosis significantly."
Wound Care 101 tip number 1 is if there's a break in the skin, it's time to seek medical attention right away. "You should probably get checked out, right? Because, you know, you might need [a] tetanus [shot] and you might need other things," Dr. Krautter continued.
So is there anything that could also hurt more than help when treating a wound? "Irrigating with peroxide or, you know, like in the old movies, dumping alcohol on the wound and stuff that causes more harm than good," he stated. Furthermore, the main thing you want to do is to prevent infection. "Protecting it in the shower so it's not getting soaked or not taking a bath and soaking the wound or that sort of thing."
Dr. Krautter believes having a first aid kit handy is also important. "So you don't need to buy, you know, fancy things or spend lots of money or that sort of thing. If you just had, you know, guys. So like 4x4 gauze would be a good resource to have. And then, you know, paper tape or paper tape is easiest on the skin, which is why I like it."
Lastly, if you're a diabetic "...making sure your sugars are controlled is probably one of the most important things as well for keeping a wound from getting infected," he said.