ROCKINGHAM — The Wound Care Center at FirstHealth Richmond Memorial, a member of the Healogics network, participated in the Healogics National Diabetes Campaign this week, joining wound care professionals across the nation in an effort to educate local physician offices on how to identify diabetic patients with or at risk for ulcers of the lower extremities.
Richmond Memorial’s Wound Care Center offers advanced therapies to patients suffering from chronic wounds including diabetic foot ulcers.
Approximately 29 million people live with diabetes in the United States. Of those, about 15 percent will develop an ulcer of the lower extremity. Ulcers that are left untreated can impair quality of life and sometimes lead to amputation. Early detection and intervention can help reduce the risk of limb loss.
“It is extremely important that patients living with diabetes recognize the warning signs of diabetic foot ulcers and seek appropriate treatment immediately when an ulcer does occur,” says MirFattah Mirian, DPM, a podiatrist with FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital. “Early detection, treatment and prevention are key for diabetic patients. Most patients don’t realize the severity of ulcers and the correlation between ulcers and loss of limbs.”
Mirian suggests that patients who find a foot ulcer follow up with a family provider, podiatrist or a wound care specialist.
“Diabetes can cause a multitude of other serious health complications including heart disease, blindness and kidney failure,” says Melissa Herman, R.D., director of FirstHealth’s Diabetes and Nutrition Education Center. “Proper diagnosis and management of the disease can help a diabetic patient in more ways then they realize.”
For more information on the FirstHealth Richmond Wound Care & Hyperbaric Center, please call (910) 417-3636. For more information on the FirstHealth Diabetes and Nutrition Education Center, call (800) 364-0499. Visit www.firsthealth.org for a list of all services provided at FirstHealth Richmond Memorial Hospital.
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