By Bridget Scrimenti, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Jun. 16–CONCORD — Doctors thought Birger Nost would lose his leg.
The 77-year-old broke bones in three places, while gangrene ate away at wounds that wouldn’t heal.
After his toe was amputated, Nost decided to seek treatment at Emerson Hospital’s Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine.
He was their first patient.
“I thought to myself, “This man’s going to lose his leg and there’s no way we’re going to heal this,'” said Wendy Slabodnick, R.N., Director of the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine.
For six months, Nost spent close to four hours a week in a glass chamber.
The high concentration of hyperbaric oxygen speeds up the body’s healing process, helping to create new cells to heal tissue,
Slabodnick said. The oxygen level is similar to being at 33 feet below sea level.
When Nost’s leg healed, he walked out of the center without having to use a cane or walker.
“It felt great — it was a pleasure to be able to walk on my own,” Nost said. “I felt like I was free.”
The majority of patients who are treated with hyperbaric oxygen have non-healing wounds caused by diabetes or radiation treatments for cancer.
“The radiation treatments over time can often damage bone or soft tissue,” Slabodnick said.
The center, which opened in September, treats about 30 patients a month.
Inside the tubular glass chamber, patients can nap or watch a plasma flat-screen TV, while a technician never leaves the room.
“It looks scarier than it is and the patient is never alone,” Slabodnick said.
On a bulletin board in the center’s hallway, there are pictures of patients who have healed, including Nost.
“That becomes their (patients’) goal, to get their face on that board,” Slabodnick said.
“He (Nost) walked out with his leg and I have never seen someone so happy — he was crying, the staff was crying.”
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