Medical Monday: Hyperbaric Medicine for wound healing

The Wound Care Center at Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center works with patients who have issues with healing from surgery, diabetes or other complications.

Joe Bernagozzi is a patient at the center and is being treated for an abdominal wound.

"I had an abdominal wound that was basically unhealed on and off for 20 years from surgery from a tropical disease I got in Vietnam," Bernagozzi explained.

Patients like Bernagozzi with difficult to heal wounds will work closely with the medical team at the Wound Care Center to help heal their wounds. Treatment can include the hyperbaric chamber.

Patients are put into the hyperbaric chamber for an hour and a half to two hours. It's painless and can help speed up the healing process. The chamber is filled with 100-percent oxygen.

Hyperbaric Registered Nurse Caitlyn Cook explained that, "They are pressurized to help push that oxygen into the plasma and help it really absorb into the wounds and into the bone to kind of get deeper nutrients. It helps push those antibiotics deeper into those wounds to really help heal the wounds from the inside."

Medical professionals say they are seeing great results from the hyperbaric chamber, and many patients are pleased with the way it makes them feel overall. Most patients will have hyperbaric treatments Monday through Friday for a total of 40 to 60 treatments.