Registered orthotic fitter celebrates 25 years making medical garments
Special to the Herald
Health Source Medical has now been helping people in need of a wide variety of medical garments for 25 years.
Medical garments can play a crucial role in the prevention and treatment of many health problems.
Owner Jeanne Brummund opened her Keremeos clinic on Oct. 1, 1993, and her Penticton clinic at 330 Martin Street in the fall of 1994.
“I’ll be forever grateful to Community Futures for helping me start my business with start-up funds and expert advice,” Brummund said.
When Brummund’s employment with BC Tel ended in early 1993, she used her unemployment insurance money to study in Toronto first to become a registered orthotic fitter and then to buy stock for her new business.
To ensure the highest standards, she also became certified by the Board of Orthotists/Prosthetist in the United States, as the equivalent does not exist in Canada.
Today, she is one of two practitioners in B.C. with this high level of certification.
To keep her skills current, Brummund attends continuing education courses and teaches inservice workshops in hospitals and long-term care facilities.
Health Source specializes in medical compression stockings and sleeves, scar management garments, post-mastectomy supplies and custom braces and supports.
She spends close to 70 per cent of her time helping people in need of medical compression therapy.
The basic purpose of this type of therapy is to assist the return of blood in the veins leading to the heart.
The accumulation of venous blood, most commonly in the lower legs, can be due to inefficiency in heart function, sitting for long periods or standing and walking on hard surfaces.
Compression garments can help prevent and treat skin ulcers (venous stasis ulcers) and potentially lethal blood clots (deep vein thrombosis).
Enhancing blood flow also simply makes people feel better, Brummund explained.
Brummund uses stocking and sleeve material made by Valco Medi in Germany and Juzo in the U.S. because they make high-quality flexible yet strong items that retain their shape.
Her patients include not only seniors but also younger people who are on their feet a lot, such as nurses, and pregnant women. Quadriplegics and paraplegics are also among Brummund’s patients.
In her Penticton clinic, Brummund has a room dedicated to assisting women who have had mastectomies.
She supplies and fits such items as initial care garments, a soft compression shirt for use immediately after surgery and lymphoedema sleeves which help to reduce swelling in the arms after a mastectomy. There are also breast forms and bras. “As we speak, there is woman having both breasts removed. I told her I’d be here for her,” Brummund said.
Her kindness and gentle humour are appreciated by all of her patients, perhaps most especially by women with mastectomies.
Once a year, Brummund donates excess mastectomy-related stock and gently used items to a women’s clinic in Mexico.
She also designs and makes clothing for burn patients, such as vests and entire torso suits, out of a special washable adhesive gel that goes between the person’s body and the garment.
Brummund’s patients, who must have a recommendation from their doctor, travel from Kelowna, Nelson and Princeton for her services.