Snohomish County News
Volunteers busy remodeling museum
Doug Ramsay photo
Western Heritage Center Interactive Museum’s Carl Blanchard adjusts a beam before nailing it down. Volunteers, like Blanchard, are expanding the Monroe museum. Opened on the far southeast corner of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in 2007, the 2,200-square-foot museum features hands on exhibits that focus on the agricultural, mining, logging and transportation industries and their history in the Snohomish River valleys. The facility, which hums with the noise from operations of century old farm and logging machines, was designed with working machines in mind. “Static displays just don’t cut it,” said museum director Jerry Senner as he turned on the switch of a 1915 electric washing machine. The expansion of the museum will feature a more attractive entrance and a gift shop and will be completed by late March. It will also give the museum a place to show off its collection of early 1900 home appliances, such as a washing machine and a non-electric ice box from the 1920s. The museum remains open during construction Wednesday through Sunday with information available at www.westernheritagecenter.org.
New oxygen chamber helps save man’s leg
MONROE - When Tim Weaver felt a bump on his shin in January 2009, he thought it was nothing.
Three days later his conditioned worsened, he went to the emergency room and found that he had necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating bacteria that required immediate attention.
“I looked at (my lower leg) and it looked like someone had thrown a bomb on it,” Weaver said.
That’s how the 52-year-old Monroe resident became the third patient to Valley General Hospital’s new wound healing center.
The center handles more than injuries. It is equipped for fighting gangrene and diabetic ulcers.
Inside, the center has two large oxygen chambers to do what is known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which works by surrounding the patient with 100 percent oxygen levels. This increases the amount of oxygen in the patient’s blood and, in the case of wounds, allows the wound to heal from the inside out.
In Weaver’s case, he had 30 visits to the chamber as well as receiving skin grafts and bacteria removal procedures.
“I believe that (the chamber) and the excellent care I got here at the wound center saved my life if not my limb,” Weaver said.
He pulls up his pant leg. Scarring from the wound is still visible but not to the critical point it was a year ago.
Weaver attributes the care he received from Dr. Jonathan Borjeson, director of the wound healing center, and the hospital’s staff for keeping his confidence up.
“They went the extra mile with me,” Weaver said, adding, “There was a lot of stuff they weren’t required to do that they did.”
Valley General Hospital is the closest hospital to have hyperbaric chambers. The next closest hospitals are in Edmonds and Seattle, hospital spokeswoman Monica Sylte said.
Weaver, a Monroe resident, said that would have been too far to drive with his wounded leg.
Since opening its wound healing center in January 2009, Valley General Hospital has served 23 people in its two hyperbaric chambers.
Weaver said that being inside the chamber is not as boring as it seems.
“You can look out the window and see the train go by,” Weaver said. Small televisions are placed over the chamber to let the time pass by.
“It’s not as claustrophobic as it looks,” Weaver said.
After his hyperbaric treatments, he had skin grafts applied to aid the healing process and was given what is called a WoundVac, which sticks to the wound and sucks out bacteria.
Weaver was able to dispose canister after canister of bacteria buildup at the hospital.
Weaver has no idea why or how he got the flesh-eating bacteria, but he is glad a local hospital was available to remove it.
“When I look back at it, I was lucky,” he said.
Weaver had every reason to fight. He wants to see his 14-month-old granddaughter grow up.
By MICHAEL WHITNEY
Published Feb. 24, 2010