Clarence Maxwell was trimming trees in his backyard when one of the limbs he was cutting jackknifed and cut into his left shin leaving a large open wound. He remembers thinking, “Boy, I’ve really done it this time.”
Realizing he needed immediate medical attention, he drove himself to the
INTEGRIS Health AllSet Urgent Care clinic located at 750 SW 19th St. in Moore.
“It was pretty severe,” recalls
Kayla Barry, the certified physician assistant who treated Clarence that day. “We cleaned it and dressed it, but it was something I couldn’t suture here. I felt like it was going to need a little bit longer term care.”
She referred Clarence to the
INTEGRIS Health Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Center at
INTEGRIS Health Southwest Medical Center.
“She said, ‘I'll be honest with you, this doesn't look good.’ I said, ‘Well, I know, I know,’” Clarence admits. “She said, ‘I tell you what, I believe we need to get wound care involved in this.’”
Melissa Harris, D.O., was impressed with Clarence right off the bat. “One of the things that struck me when I first met Mr. Maxwell was just his positive outlook. He came into our clinic knowing that he was going to get better and knowing that we were there to help him and just coming into the whole process with that mindset made all the difference.”
She continues, “With wounds, it can take up to a full year for that wound to fully heal. Once it scars over, it's still working in there. It's still remodeling. I do tell my patients, please be careful with the area. It is going to be very delicate for quite some time. It's never going to be as strong as it was before.”
Clarence says the recovery was slow and steady, but worth the wait. “This all happened when I was 85 and I turned 86 before I got well. I was a little bit afraid for a while that I was gonna fool around and lose my leg. You know if it got infected, but they took care of it and I am tickled to death with the way it is now.”
As for Dr. Harris, she did give Clarence some advice moving forward. “In the case of Mr. Maxwell, I did recommend maybe not chopping down any more tree limbs,” she says with a smile.
To schedule an appointment or to learn more about the INTEGRIS Health wound care program, call 405-644-5398.
