Dr. Gene Hill is a practicing podiatrist who has been caring for patients with severe wounds for 40 years. Very active at 67 years old, he noticed one spring that a small ulcer had developed on his left shin.
“The wound on my leg didn’t come from an injury,” explains Dr. Hill. “It began as something very small and grew slowly.”
Given his extensive professional expertise, Dr. Hill initially tried to treat the wound himself. “I examined it closely and made notes: No DM, good pulses, venous blood flow studies normal, biopsy normal, cultures rare staph. No comorbidities.”
He treated the ulcer for three months with topical solutions and covered it with a sterile dressing, but it did not get better.
The condition was limiting his active lifestyle. “The wound was starting to have a big impact on my quality of life,” he recalls. “I couldn’t do any of my favorite summer things: getting into the pool with my grandchildren, or swimming and clamming at the beach.”
He then turned to his local wound care center, “hoping their magic would work better.” But after three months of weekly visits including Duoderm, Amerigel, Bactroban, cultures, biopsy, venous blood-flow studies and antibiotics, the ulcer had grown even larger.
“I decided to change course,” he says. “As in sailing: no speed, no or little wind, change course.”
“I called my good friend Dr. Robert Frykberg, who had been a surgery resident with me at the New England Deaconess Hospital/Joslin Clinic. He has been one of my best friends since that time, and recommended that I try the Kerecis Omega3 fish-skin graft.”
Dr. Hill debrided the wound himself using sterile technique and applied three Kerecis graphs at weekly intervals. At four weeks, he observed that more than 90 percent of the wound was covered with a vital layer of tissue, “which I thought was extremely remarkable.”
Dr. Hill’s wound has completely healed, and he has returned to doing the outdoor things he loves. “This past weekend I went snowmobiling in New Hampshire,” he tells, “and I was even able to soak in the outdoor hot tub.” He adds, “I can’t thank Kerecis enough for their product. It gave me my life back.”
