Forrest General Hospital Trauma Surgeon Steps Out of Operating Room Suite to Aid Community Group

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (August 26, 2024) Georgia Wahl, MD, is a surgeon at Forrest General Hospital, where she routinely deals with trauma or acute care general surgery such as taking out a gallbladder or an appendix, working on people who are victims of gunshot wounds or industrial accidents, have suffered serious injuries from a car accident, stabbing wounds, and other trauma injuries.

For a recent surgery, she was dressed in her green surgical scrubs and her LSU surgical cap. She performed a procedure, not as an FGH surgeon, but as an interested resident of the Hattiesburg community who has a vested interest in its groups and organizations, who just happened to be an FGH surgeon. This particular day her interest was with the Hub City Humane Society (HCHS). The surgical suite wasn’t at Forrest General Hospital, but rather the Panther Parkway veterinary clinic on the Evelyn Gandy Parkway. Her patient was an 8-week-old female mixed breed puppy named Charlie, who had a large burn on her abdomen, probably from a heating pad, prior to arriving at the humane society.

Wahl enlisted the help of the team at Panther Parkway – clinic veterinarian, Kate Lee, DVM, and the team, who also does some of the spay and neuter surgeries for Hub City Humane, to tend to Charlie’s needs.

A certified mutt, but quite adorable, Charlie, was in a deep sleep with her belly exposed. A blip monitored her heart rate and blood pressure. The wound to her abdomen represented an area skin loss of about 20% body surface. “Weighing in at less than five pounds, this is a big wound for such a sweet girl,” Wahl said in a Facebook post to HCHS followers.

Charlie had already had one debridement surgery to remove the outer layers of burned skin, according to Wahl. Local wound care was occurring twice daily to clean the area, but Wahl was hoping that through social media she would be able to find a source for donated or expired kerecis. Kerecis is intact fish skin, either tilapia or cod, especially developed to be transplanted into a variety of animal wounds.

“This treatment, which is very expensive, has been used in people and animals, such as bears’ paws who have been injured in wildfires,” Wahl said. She explained that the HCHS does not have an emergency fund for cases like Charlie’s that might exceed the cost of a normal vet bill. “When cases like this come up, we have to do individual fundraisers to get the funds needed to pay the bill,” Wahl said. 

This is also the same kind of treatment that was used several years ago at the Veterinary School at Mississippi State University when a dog, known as Buddy, was severely burned and required a lengthy healing process.

Luckily, social media, combined with phone calls to the Kerecis Company, and a picture or two of a sweet blue-eyed puppy proved fruitful and a regional manager reached out to Wahl saying the company would help. On Monday of that week, a Kerecis regional manager met Wahl to hand off the skin graft. Surgery was scheduled for the next day.

Wahl said without the fish skin graft surgery, Charlie was looking at months of twice daily treatments and prolonged wound healing, which was quite painful, with Charlie expressing her displeasure rather vocally.

The surgery, which took only about 15 minutes, with Lee lending a hand, involved removing the graft from its protective wrapping, wetting it with saline, and then cutting to size to cover the burned area. The graft, which smelled fishy, had the presence of fish scales on one side.

The graft was sutured in place, covered in saline, bandaged, and then wrapped in a bright pink Coban bandage, which provides therapeutic compression. Because Charlie had a tendency to chew at the bandage, Wahl who was her immediate caregiver was also putting her in preemie onesies to keep her away from her bandages. She would also be wearing the dreaded cone, at times. “We don’t want to ruin our good work,” Wahl said.

Wahl said during Charlie’s recovery, the outer skin, or the fish scale side, should fall off in five to six days and the graft should be integrated into the skin in two to three weeks. “Charlie will probably never have fur in that area,” Wahl said. “The graft will thicken up that skin. In humans, that sometimes causes a problem because of scar tissue, especially when you have to cut through it. We see the same in animals as we do in humans, and the skin doesn’t heal quite as well.”

Wahl has been involved with the Hub City Humane Society for more than five years. It’s something very near and dear to her heart. She said it started with monetary gifts and construction needs before eventually joining the board where she now serves as vice president. Her position on the HCHS board doesn’t mean she sits in a lofty position helping make decisions regarding how the non-profit operates. While that may be part her job, she’s actually in the trenches bottle feeding puppies and kittens, working to get funding or donated services, and other tasks that are extremely important to keep the non-profit moving forward. Or, she’s sorting through items donated to the Humane Society’s Thrift Store in hopes of raising more money for her furry friends.

She enjoys every moment. A pet owner herself, she currently has two dogs – a 12-year-old lab mix, and a two-year old German shepherd/border collie mix, and four cats. “I also keep a lot of the shelter’s bottle baby kittens, because my shelter manager knows I’m a giant sucker,” Wahl said. In addition to her hospital work, this is next on her schedule. “I think everyone should have a cause they support and believe in,” Wahl said. “It grounds us.”

Wahl believes the compassion and dignity she shows for her hospital patients that carries over into the care she provides for her animal friends is just a personality trait.

While she hasn’t got any spay or neuter surgeries under her belt, she has helped with other animal surgeries before. “Half the stuff I do as a surgeon, vets also do, or more,” Wahl said. “We use the same products and the same techniques on people. We have a very tiny surgery center at the shelter, but it is really only equipped to do simple, straight forward spay and neuter procedures. There is a very large need for animals throughout the community to be spayed or neutered.”

She said the HCHS, like most shelters, has ongoing basic monthly needs that the community can help with in addition to adoption, which is always important and needed. “Our basic needs also include fostering for dogs, puppies, and cats,” she said.

Following surgery, Charlie went home with Wahl to be monitored and cared for during her recovery and will then go back to her medical foster, Wahl’s mom, who is retired and dotes on her. Once she gets bigger and stronger, she’ll go in to be spayed. Wahl said Charlie may require a local advancement flap to close the wound at her spay surgery, but they will wait to see how she does. In the meantime, Charlie will continue to be an emotional support animal for another pup who needs some extra attention and finds comfort in Charlie.

Two weeks post-surgery and Charlie is healing nicely. She now only requires once-a-day dressing changes. “She is quite the escape artist when it comes to her bandages,” Wahl said.  

At Forrest General, the hospital’s mission is to do what is best for its patients. Wahl believes that goal is the same for both her hospital work and her humane society work.

 “It’s wonderful when our healthcare professionals, one of our surgeons, in this case,  can show another side and how they use their skills and medical knowledge to help in other ways throughout the community,” said Millie Swan, Forrest Health vice president. “How very sweet and lucky for this puppy!”

For more information about Forrest General Hospital, visit www.forrestgeneral.org.