The Henry Mayo Newhall Wound Care Clinic is officially open after a ribbon-cutting Wednesday night, when officials thanked the doctors and staff who had been working to prepare the facility, including the new hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers.

The facility has been a long time in the making, said Henry Mayo CEO Roger Seaver.

“It has been 10 years to get the hyperbaric wound care center,” he said. “It has been a challenge that we face from time to time, but this one proved to be unique.”

But now the facility is open, he said, patients will see the benefits.

“The good news here is really for the patients,” Seaver said. “This technology can be very helpful for the patients that suffer from chronic wounds that are very difficult to heal.”

The crown jewel of the clinic, a pair of hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, will be used to treat chronic wounds such as ulcers and radiation related illnesses.

“This is not something anybody wants to be a patient for,” Seaver said. “But if you have access to hyperbaric, you just expanded your chances of successful healing (from) the wound substantially.”

Before the two machines came to Henry Mayo, residents had to travel at least half an hour to Palmdale or UCLA for over a month to be treated with hyperbaric medicine.  

“It’s not every patient, it’s not every type of wound that needs hyperbaric, but when they do, today they’re traveling daily for a month to another off-site facility,” Seaver said. “We’re trying to lower the risk for patients as they stay here in the Santa Clarita Valley.”

Dr. Lakhbinder Dhanda, the hospital chief of staff, likened the addition of the new treatment options to watching something in high definition over standard, noting the quality of care will be noticeably stronger for patients who need it.

“Now we have it in our hospital, and that will ease their pain and the trouble the family has to go through for months,” he said.

City officials were present at the ribbon-cutting, thanking the hospital for the work they do in advancing health care in Santa Clarita.

“This is our hospital, this is our hometown,” said Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste. “This is where we meet with our friends and family when one of them is not well, or when there’s a joyous occasion, a baby is born.”

The addition of hyperbaric medicine is a step forward for the Santa Clarita Valley, she said.

“This is just one more step for great care and the best treatment here in our city, our hometown, so we don’t have to get on the freeways and be away from our family and friends,” Weste said. “Bringing cutting edge technology like this to Santa Clarita so we can recover and be healthy and enjoy the great community we live in is really important.”

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