Helping
Mother
Nature
along
ANY PRIMARY PHYSICIAN
can treat a scrape or sore. But when a
lesion won’t heal, it’s time to call in a spe-
cialist trained in treating chronic wounds.
“We don’t just provide acute care,”
explains J. Chadwick Tober, MD, one of a
team of eight doctors on staf at Beaufort
Memorial Hospital’s Wound Care Center.
“We look at the entire patient to try to
determine what could be causing the
problem.”
For Nancy Porter, it was excessive
weight.
A sore spot
A 63-year-old Beaufort resident, Porter
had developed a chronic wound following
surgery in 2005 to remove a lymphedema,
or swelling, on her thigh. Over the next
three years, she was treated at several
Savannah hospitals and medical facilities.
She underwent two skin grafts, 80 hours
in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, plastic
surgery and negative-pressure wound
therapy—and still the lesion persisted.
In 2008, she was referred to Beaufort
Memorial Hospital’s newly opened Wound
Care Center, adjacent to the hospital in
Beaufort Medical Plaza.
“Most wounds heal in 10 days to two
weeks,” says internist Steven Kessel, MD,
one of three doctors at the Wound Care
Center to treat Porter. “If it hasn’t cleared
up in 30 days, it’s considered a chronic
wound. At that point, you need to sort
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