23/06/2025
Did you know people with diabetes are more likely to develop wounds that don’t heal on their own? That makes access to advanced wound care especially critical in South LA, where diabetes rates are higher than average.
We recently sat down with Joey Knox, Program Director of the MLK Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center, to talk about treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy—an approach particularly effective for patients with diabetes.
“If you’re not diabetic, we can use bio-engineered skin substitutes and wound vacs to reduce infections and accelerate healing. They have a really good success rate,” he said. “But when you have poor circulation due to diabetes, you need to enhance that healing with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.”
Many of the patients at the center are dealing with diabetic foot ulcers which, left untreated, can lead to infection or amputation. For Joey and his team, it’s not enough to just heal the wound; they want to solve the underlying issues.
“It’s our standard protocol to check how you’re eating, how you’re sleeping, are you wearing the proper shoes, what your nutrition is like, what your blood glucose levels are,” he said. “We don’t want to wrap you up and send you out. We want you to heal and stay healed.”
That level of care starts with his team and is powered by the patients themselves. Joey credits his team for the compassion they bring to every case, and says he’s continually inspired by the people they serve. “Our patients face real challenges, but they show up determined to heal. We’re not just restoring their mobility—we’re restoring hope. That is a privilege I don’t take for granted.”
Learn more about the MLK Wound Healing & Hyperbaric Center: mlkch.org/wound-care
