After accidentally stepping onto barbed wire while walking her Irish Wolfhounds nearly a decade ago, Kathleen hadn’t thought much about her old, mostly-healed wounds.
Until 10 months ago, when those old wounds flared up again, with several reopening and becoming badly infected. Given her active lifestyle working on the ranch, where she won national accolades training Irish Wolfhounds for show outside of Rifle, CO, Kathleen had no intention of slowing down.
She visited the Grand River Health Wound Clinic, where Candi Spear, NP, got to work treating her infected wounds, with the goal of saving her leg. Candi debrided the wounds aggressively over two visits and then considered her treatment options.
Given that other skin substitutes had not helped Kathleen’s wounds fully heal in the past, Candi had another solutions in mind — Kerecis.
Candi opted to try Kerecis Shield Adhesive grafts, which feature a perforated silicone backing to protect the fish-skin graft while efficiently managing exudate and wound moisture. She and her team approached each wound independently, applying anywhere from one to several rounds of Shield.
Since her first visit to Grand River Health, Kathleen has seen nine of her 10 open wounds fully heal after treatment with Kerecis. She’s down to just one remaining wound, which is being treated with Kerecis Shield to encourage new skin growth and epithelialization.
With her leg nearly healed, Kathleen is tolerating her compression therapy much better and no longer experiences pain and irritation from multiple open wounds. She’s still using a cane for stability but is otherwise back to enjoying her active lifestyle on the ranch!
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From the town of Ísafjörður in northwest Iceland, Kerecis develops, manufactures, and distributes patented fish-skin medical devices that support soft tissue regeneration in the body, with regulatory clearance in the United States, Europe, and beyond.
