RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across our state, a clinic in Russellville is taking matters into its own hands and starting to treat positive patients.
The clinic has already seen three COVID-19 patients.
The doctor in charge of it all, Mary Annette Pugh, said their goal is to treat patients there, in hopes of keeping them out of the hospitals.
"Arkansas right now is a hot spot, so we gotta do something," she said.
For Dr. Mary Annette Pugh, that "something" is personal.
"I became positive and my family members were positive and so my goal was to keep us out of the hospital," she said.
Now, Pugh is keeping that same goal to treat her community members by using her pain, wound, and wellness clinic as a COVID-19 treatment clinic.
"We just do a visit, like anybody else who was sick, and then we try to start them on all of the cocktail that we have," she said.
The clinic sees positive and presumed positive COVID-19 patients, while treating them with the same antibiotics and vitamins that Pugh used with her own family and friends.
A close friend of Pugh's, Dardanelle Mayor Jimmy Witt, believes this is a great idea.
"I have personally seen, four times now, her regimen of medication treatment work in varying ages of people and they all recovered," he said.
Witt said this is something we've been needing for months.
"We're setting new records of hospitalizations and our deaths in the state of Arkansas and we have got to turn that around somehow," he said.
Both Mayor Witt and Dr. Pugh are optimistic this clinic could help with that turning point and hope other towns latch onto the idea, so we don't run into a shortage of hospital beds.
"If we can save one persons life, this would be worth it. This is all worth it," Pugh said.
If you want to make an appointment with the clinic, they ask that you call ahead. You can call them at (479) 979 - 8064.
The clinic is located at 2504 W. Main St. Suite H. in Russellville.