MARILEN'S STORY
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Marilen Cabrera cares. As a home health nurse she has seen much suffering of elderly and immobile patients. When Marilen started visiting an elderly woman with multiple co-morbidities, she realized that something had to be done about the bad black eschar heel wound. Enluxtra was the logical choice that fit the bill and helped remove eschar in a matter of three weeks. Check out the photographic chronicle of this case on our blog page: Eschar: Nature's Band-Aid or a Timebomb? |
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I was seeing one of my patients, a 77-year-old woman, for treatment of the wound on her heel. She was hospitalized for cerebral hemorrhage, and then transferred to a skilled nursing facility. Her wound started as a deep tissue injury. By April (and by the time the patient was discharged to home), her wound progressed to becoming a large unstageable pressure ulcer covered with black eschar.
My patient has been suffering from numerous health issues for quite a while and has a history of uncontrolled diabetes and other serious conditions such as stroke, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and congestive heart failure. She also suffered from deep vein thrombosis and had elevated cholesterol. She was on insulin twice daily but not very consistent with her medications because of forgetfulness. Being chair-bound due to weakness, my patient also had bilateral leg edema with 2+ pitting edema. Her legs had poor circulation, which was not conducive to fast healing of her wound We started with Betadine treatment 3 times per week from the onset of eschar in February 2015 in order to stabilize it, but this led us nowhere, even with existing pressure relief. My patient lives alone and gets some help from a home maker and a relative. She relies on me for her dressing changes and refused any substitution. With her limited mobility, there are times when she has difficulty coming to the door. With all this in mind we've decided to try Enluxtra. One big advantage of using it is that dressing changes don't have to be frequent, so we would have peace of mind and assurance that the wound will not get worse, or get infected. After 3 months of Betadine, we started using Enluxtra and my patient's fortunes have certainly turned for the better. The first 3 Enluxtra applications included hydrogel to help soften eschar that was too dry. Once its edges started loosening, we still had no option to debride the wound due to various reasons, so we just continued on with Enluxtra. We have used a total of 5 Enluxtra dressings over a period of 3 weeks and achieved complete removal of the eschar with nice granulation starting on the wound. My patient is now lost to follow-up as she has been recently transferred to a nursing home. My biggest hope is that the doctors there know of Enluxtra and continue to use it to completely heal the wound. Marilen is a Registered Nurse who graduated from City Colleges of Chicago in 2005. She has 3 years of hospital and 10 years of home health experience. She is currently working with multiple home health agencies in the Chicago area (Home Life Health Care, Metropolitan Home Health Care, Life Options and Horizon Home Health Care). |
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*All stories and photos are published with expressed agreement of the patients.
