1/28/11 jph board meeting

  • By Nick Sabo
  • January 28, 2011
  • 271
                        
A Pomerene Hospital pyhscian will partner with the Amish community in a descriptive study of the effects of a common wild plant on burns. Dr. Mark Jaroch was granted permission by the hospital board Thursday/Jan. 27 to begin a study of a burn and wound ointment used locally to treat burns. The ointment is said to be most effective when coupled with burdock leaves. The ointment, known as B & W ointment and made in Ohio, is not FDA-approved. “We don’t know why it works, perhaps it is the aloe in it,” Jaroch said. “It seems to be quite effective and much less expensive than traditional treatments.” Mose Hershberger, who has administered the salve/burdock leaf treatment as a lay practitioner, said the salve has been in use in the local Amish community for about three years. It was developed 30 years ago by inventor John Keim and is also in use in Indiana, Hershberger said. The treatment has not been described medically, and this is where Jaroch steps in, Pomerene CEO Tony Snyder said. “(Local lay practitioners) approached us to see if there’s any way we can work together,” Snyder said. “The way this is being administered is in the home (so) what is missing here is some medical insight.” The ointment is composed of mostly natural ingredients. It is applied two to three hours after the skin is burned, giving the wound “time to cool”, lay practitioner Marvin Wengerd said. Burdock leaves steeped in hot water are then placed above the ointment, and the burn is dressed with sterile gauze. The dressing is changed every 12 hours. Wengerd said the burns heal faster with less scar tissue. Relief from pain is almost instantaneous, Wengerd said, furthering along the healing process. Jaroch’s study will have parameters. His observations will be within the Amish community, where the treatment has been established. First, second, and minimal third degree burns will be observed, with patients who have burns on less than 25 percent of the body. The study is expected to take between six months and a year, Snyder said. The treatment will not be offered to Pomerene patients. All applications of the treatment will be conducted in the home by lay practitioners such as Hershberger and Wengerd. Jaroch expressed optimism that the treatment may one day go mainstream. “We’ve got a great product here, we want to document it, get it approved, develop it,” Jaroch said. In other business, Snyder recognised the following staff for attaining the following certifications: Danielle Byler, RN, medical surgical nursing; Twila Rhodes, RN, ER nurse; Julia Klink, RN, ER nurse; Katerina Barnett, RN, ER nurse; Jody Frye, RN, ER nurse; Sarah Johnson, RN, ER nurse. The next meeting of the Pomerene Hospital board will be held Feb.24.


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