London Summerville, a middle school teacher from Skokie, found herself with an open wound that refused to heal after surgery to remove a bone spur from her big toe joint in July 2023.
“I thought I'd be literally and figuratively back on my feet by the time school started,” she said.
As the months wore on, Summerville began visiting wound care specialists and even underwent a second procedure to reclose the wound. Nothing worked. After several months, she says she was at her lowest point.
“I didn’t have any underlying health issues,” she said. “The specialists were really puzzled as to why this was happening to me.”
In January 2024, Summerville's primary care doctor Kim Grahl, MD, internal medicine physician with Endeavor Health Medical Group, referred her to Andrew Agos, MD, a critical care surgery specialist with Endeavor Health, for a treatment methodology called hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
“Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to primarily treat wounds that have a hard time healing,” explained Dr. Agos. “It's been used in modern medicine for many, many years.”
Dr. Agos told Summerville that she was a good candidate for hyperbaric oxygen therapy at Endeavor Health.
“From the very start, they understood that my case was a special one,” said Summerville. “My insurance initially refused to pay for the procedures, but they fought for me and got the procedures approved.”
During hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments, patients are placed inside of a sealed, pressurized chamber with 100% oxygen pumped into it. “It's like they're diving underwater; we even call the treatments ‘dives’,” explained Dr. Agos.
The patients in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber inhale the oxygen so it supersaturates their blood cells.
“Oxygen is critical to our metabolism, healing and self-function,” said Dr. Agos. “This is the best way to deliver the highest amount of oxygen possible so it can work from inside the body to heal the wound on the outside.”
After about five weeks of “dives” three or four days a week, Summerville was changing her dressing when she saw what looked like a black stitch emerging from the wound.
“Dr. Agos explained it could be one of the sutures from my surgery,” said Summerville. “If the dissolvable suture does not get absorbed, your body treats it like a foreign agent and won't heal around it.”
The following day, Dr. Agos removed the suture and the wound closed.
Summerville said that from the beginning, she felt at home in the care of Dr. Agos and his team.
“I felt like they understood how much of an impact this has had on my life, both physically and emotionally,” she said. “Their care was really exceptional.”
Related Articles
