Patients Benefit From Award-Winning Wound Therapy Program In Wellington It was a simple MRI to determine the cause of pain in Cindy Johnson’s left shoulder. No big deal; this was not Johnson’s first experience with an MRI or healthcare services. As a two-time breast cancer survivor and an amputee of her right hand, she has become a bit of an expert when it comes to healthcare. Zip in, zip out — find the source of the pain and quickly start treatment. As part of the preparation for her eventual hand prosthetic, Johnson was wearing a mesh compression sleeve on her right arm. She was required to wear it for the majority of the day, and she was looking forward to receiving the prosthetic and regaining some use of a right hand. However, it was not long after the MRI started at a local radiology
center that she noticed something was not quite right. “A few minutes into the MRI, I felt pain in my right arm and thought, ‘I should not be having pain’ but decided to endure it since it was only going to be for a few minutes,” Johnson said. “But when the MRI was completed, it was obvious something was not right.”
Her right arm was blistered and had second- and third-degree burns above her right elbow. It turns out that the compression sleeve had silver threads woven into the fabric, and those reacted with the MRI, resulting in the burns to her arm. The burns were significant enough that she would need wound care therapy to heal. However, this is the point where she considers herself a bit “lucky” to be a breast cancer survivor. She had met Dr. Kathleen Minnick, who served as the medical advisor for her breast cancer support group and is the co-medical director of the Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Welling-
The Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine at Wellington Regional Medical Center was recently named the Center of the Year, as well as being awarded the prestigious President’s Circle award in recognition for outstanding performance in the areas of patient satisfaction and wound care.
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july 2019 | wellington the magazine