Hyperbaric chambers provide atmospheric pressures 3 or 4 times what is normal. That is a lot of pressure. I suppose that they can go greater than that. I never cared for working with them. The Patient goes inside, sometimes they watch movies on disc or tape, and you mostly just sit in the room and watch them while monitoring vital signs. It is very dull work. I prefer the ICUs or even the Trauma Bays.
I am unfamiliar with ‘Living Air’ machines. I see a lot of scams, such as this stuff of selling ‘canned oxygen.’ I once saw an on line ad for Oxygen in a bottle or can and the claims made were so ludicrous that if it were not very serious it would be comedic. The advertising claimed that in recent centuries the percentage of Oxygen in the air (the FIO2) was much higher. It was complete nonsense. I have since searched for those ads, but they seem to have been scrubbed.
Over the years I have considered writing a medical type entertainment show which would completely scoff at the things that are being marketed. It would have too limited of an audience though because most persons would not get my jokes.
gisd O
Here's why: In 1991 I had a neck dissection due to cancer that metastasized from the tonsil to lymph nodes on my left side. Had radiation, chemo and then the surgery. Had max radiation to the left neck and jawbone. In mid 1993 I broke the second molar on the lower left. My dentist could not repair it. He said that it had split in two all the way down the root, so no root canal, no crown.
He knew my dental history and sent me to a Navy veteran Oral Surgeon who worked a lot with vets at Bethesda. He said he was concerned that if he took the tooth out, the radiation damage may cause the jaw bone to die due to insufficient blood flow. He called it “radialosteonecrosis” or “death to the bone via radiation. So, before he could remove the tooth he sent me to Mt. Vernon for the first 40 hours of Bariatric treatment, 2 hours at a time. Dr. Titus ran that unit.
Dr. Titus had done a lot of research on pressurized oxygen and its healing properties. He said that 40 hours of the treatment would cause new blood vessels to grow. He had lots of data to support that, Any more than 40 hours was ineffective. The new blood vessels would prevent the jawbone from dying (which, he said, was extremely painful and would result in the jawbone being removed by surgery).
So.....we started the process. After the 40 hours, I went back to the Oral Surgeon and he removed the molar and remarked how good the blood flow was. After the extraction I went back for an additional 20 hours, 2 hours at a sitting, to improve healing.
Radix, I know sitting there watching the patients in the chambers were boring. But it was explained to me that there were going to be 2 people in the room at ALL TIMES. In case one would have an accident or medical emergency, there was someone else who could depressurize the chambers and get the people out. Remember, we're put in there and the door is closed and shut from the outside; no way to get yourself out.
My schedule was changed a couple of times for emergencies. They needed the chambers one time for a family who suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning from a house fire. One time a baby was put in a chamber because of almost drowning. So, things like that.
It was used mainly for wound treatment of diabetics. There were 2 chambers in my room and because of the number of sessions, you would be on the same schedule as others and got to know them. Some would go into the chambers and fall asleep; some would be nervous for the whole 2 hours. I remember a woman totally freaking out because one hospital staffer (not part of the HC staff) came in to talk to the technician and casually leaned in and put his arm on her unit. Really triggered her claustrophobia.
Yeah....we watched movies; helped the time pass. When it would get close to the end of the 2 hours, I watched the clock, counting down the time for the decompression. The decompression would last about 15 minutes at the end, just like it would last 15 minutes to pressurize you at the beginning of the session.
No perfume, deodorant. Nothing goes in the chamber unless it was natural cotton; no synthetics and nothing that could cause a spark —you can understand why. I was told the story that one time in Italy a young boy was put into a chamber after a serious injury and they didn't check his pockets. He had one of those little metal toy guns that when you pulled the trigger constantly it would make a sound and spark (I remember having one as a kid). Sigh....it didn't turn out good for the little boy.
Your comments brought back memories.......