The grandmother of four-year-old Francesco Pio Martinisi has died from her injuries suffered when a hyperbaric chamber she was in with Francesco exploded, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. Francesco's condition is still listed as critical.Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBOT) is a treatment sometimes recommended by alternative practitioners as a treatment for autism. A recent study seems to suggest that HBOT may be helpful in some cases, though the medical mainstream is still skeptical.Francesco came out of surgery late Friday night. His cousins told CBS4 Reporter Natalia Zea he is in critical condition, with burns covering 90 percent of his body.
Francesco and his grandmother were both badly burned during specialized hyperbaric oxygen therapy that is meant to help him. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are used to breathe pure oxygen while under increased air pressure as a means to treat a variety of medical conditions.
Because HBOT involves the use of pressurized oxygen, it is obviously a fire and explosion hazard. Typically, hospitals and treatment centers that offer HBOT follow specific safety protocols, though clearly even such protocols aren't foolproof.
Of even greater concern, though, are home HBOT systems. Recent blogs and online discussions suggest that families are purchasing such systems and using them without a full understanding of the possible dangers. Parents, for example, join their autistic children in the chambers while using electronic devices such as ipods and laptops. By using such devices, they're unintentionally raising the likelihood of an explosion or fire.
There's no doubt that HBOT does have therapeutic usefulness in some situations. It's not clear whether autism is, in fact, one of those situations. For parents who do decide to try HBOT for their child with autism, it's imperative that they check out the safety of the device, and practice extreme care in using the chambers. While I haven't investigated home HBOT systems in depth, it seems reasonable to suggest that families avoid putting potentially explosive devices in their homes - and to opt for hospital-based treatment.
This of course is a completely sad story to have read on a Monday. I hope the child will make it.
“Recent blogs and online discussions suggest that families are purchasing such systems and using them without a full understanding of the possible dangers. Parents, for example, join their autistic children in the chambers while using electronic devices such as ipods and laptops. By using such devices, they’re unintentionally raising the likelihood of an explosion or fire.”
For example
This is one of the indirect issues with quackery. People who shouldn’t be in there use it. This person commenting on your previous thread is a prime example of the ‘must cure right now and screw the evidence, screw the facts’ mentality. s/he is putting their child’s life in direct danger with absolutely no indication the ‘treatment’ is useful. The anti-vaccine movement has spawned this kind of guinea pig mentality with every new piece of woo it uses.
while I would certainly refrain from using the term quackery until the evidence is out, I also question some of the applications of hbot in still unproven treatment modalities. But, I would also say that if not for clinical trials and “guinea pigs” we would not have discovered 99% of what we now call mainstream medicine. Also, the previous poster essentially disqualifies his whole argument by introducing the subject of the “anti-vaccine” movement which isn’t even what this story is about.
Kev is obviously someone who himself has a “screw the facts” mentality. There is compelling evidence already out that HBOT is effective with autism patients. It is also FDA approved for 13 different indications such as diabetic foot wounds. People are injured everyday by hospitals using other fda approved procedures. There have been very few instances of injury using hbot. Get your facts straight and stop using words like “quackery” to disparage a promising new treatment that has helped thousands of people who were deemed untreatable by mainstream medicine.
What makes this more scarier is that this wasn’t an in-home HBOT unit, they were at a center which was providing it. Autism is not deemed untreatable by main stream medicine either. It is parents who hear about some great new not mainstream treatment and ho wmany times does articles come forth with this outcome? Of course HBOT can be useful for wounds of all kinds, diabetic or not however often times the wounds still do not heal with the use of HBOT. There is no guarantee HBOT will save a person from an amputated limb. There is also no guarantee a child with autism will improve with HBOT, either, or we’d all being doing it if the results were that impressive.
A grandmother is dead and a child is burned 90 percent of his body. What is to be learned here is the procedures followed by that one center and why the HBOT exploded. Everyone considering this method should inquire the practicing history of the ones offering it and if any violations have ben in the past.
A grandmother is dead, and a little boy for sure is enduring extreme physical pain right at this moment. The potential of harm should be known to parents.
“Parents, for example, join their autistic children in the chambers while using electronic devices such as ipods and laptops. By using such devices, they’re unintentionally raising the likelihood of an explosion or fire.”
I do not know much about this, but isn’t there a huge fire risk difference between “hard HBOT” at 100% oxygen and “mild HBOT” using pressurized room air? Why would using electronic devices in pressurized room air be an explosion hazard? I suspect the FL incident involved 100% oxygen, compared to the poster Kev linked was likely in compressed room air.
I thought the study that was recently reviewed on your site Kev used compressed room air, not 100% oxygen, and that they reported some benefit in treating autism symptoms (I did not say cure). Yes, I agree, more research is needed here before we all jump in these things.
A hyperbaric treatment with “air” (21% oxygen) at 1.5 times atmospheric pressure has 1.5 times the amount of oxygen. twice atmospheric pressure has 2 times the oxygen. Most “mild HBOT” is actually 100% oxygen at 1.5 ATA, which is lower treatment pressure than published research for “approved” indications.
Given another way, “room air” has approximately 155 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) pressure exerted by oxygen – give or take for alitude from sea level, local trace gas concentrations, smog, temperature and humidity. Room air at 1.5 times atmospheric pressure would be 233 mmHg oxygen. 100% oxygen at 1.5 atmospheres is 1,134 mmHg.
The point is, even if using compressed “air,” there is still a concentration of oxygen and an increased fire risk, albeit significantly lower than when using 100% oxygen. Keep in mind the oxygen itself isn’t flamable. It merely lowers the temperature required to initiate and sustain a burn. Hot batteries from a laptop outside the chamber are annoying, but inside the chamber can set the sheets on fire and be very difficult to extinguish.
Even with this tragedy, I remain cautiously optimistic that at least some types of autism will show improved response to standard therapy when hyperbaric treatments are added to the therapy. It will take at least one or two confirming studies for the idea to be widely accepted.
This incident is incredible sad, and is especially surprising because this Florida facility has helped literally tens of thousands of children and adults with autism, traumatic brain injury and stroke over the years. The founder, Dr. Richard Neubauer, was a giant in the field of neurological recovery. As far as efficacy for children with autism, our facility in Hawaii was one of those involved in the NIH study treating children with autism, and our results were incredible. Every single child showed significant, measurable improvements, including 7 who went from non-verbal to talking in age-appropriate sentences – most of the first time in years. Don’t discount HBOT. Used safely and correctly, it is one of our best hopes for reversing the effects of autism. HBOT is covered by health insurance for many other diagnoses – once it is for autism, we will see safer, easier access for all US children with autism and their families.
“>@John.
We have one study from Dan Rossignol et al which has some fairly serious issues with it as regards autism. There is also no indication it does a damn thing for cerebral palsy either. People being told it will help and who are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars as this family were are victims of quackery. People who are using HBOT for its medically indicated use aren’t. Simple eh?
@jruch what in the commenters comment lead you to believe it was a soft chamber? Even if it was, the danger might be lessened but hardly eliminated. Stuff like this is clearly nothing to screw about with.
Lisa,
Instead of taking an alarmist position and talking about risks of explosion how about instead looking at the actual safety record of the industry. So how about answering the following questions –
When was the last time that a hard chamber exploded in the US resulting in injury or death?
You talk about risks of explosion at home due to a commercial soft chamber – can you find a reference to this ever happening?
I suspect if you do some basic research you will find that this is an extremely rare occurrence.
It is much more likely that a child will be injured in a car accident going to a therapy session than it is that they will be injured in an explosion of an HBOT chamber.
So how about staying in the realm of reasonable risks instead of inventing new ones to worry about?
There are many types of hyperbaric chambers. Literally “hyperbaric” means high pressure. Home hyperbaric chambers are only slightly higher than atmospheric pressure. Hyperbaric chambers at health facilities are generally two times atmospheric pressure but can go sometimes go as high as six times atmospheric pressure. Mono-place and small multi-place hyperbaric chambers are designed to have the entire chamber filled with 100% oxygen. Any 100% oxygen environment is very dangerous due to flammability. Larger multi-place hyperbaric chambers are filled with room air and the oxygen is delivered through head gear or a mask. This makes the danger of fire basically on par with inside an emergency room where oxygen is being delivered to patients by mask. Although such hyperbaric chambers are much much safer, they are rare due to their expense.
Statistics or not, one death and one burn victim is enough that parents should research the center providing the service, and their medical history. Anyone can do a web search to locate the number of injuries and deaths due to HBOT. Anytime oxygen is being used, there is potential for danger, as seen with this family.
Some years back a 9 year old went for an MRI. Some one left an oxygen tank in the room. The MRI started and the boy died. Doesn’t happen often but wouldn’t it make you ask questions prior???? Would me, and it would/ should of this death of HBOT.
It makes no difference how often it happens, it did this once (not the first case either)and it involved 2 people since the child needed an adult to go with him. Parents should ask many questions, have an idea how HBOT works to prevent these mistakes. Some one made some mistake some where, and some one is about to be sued over these injuries and deaths and maybe loose their license to practice. It’s surprising how any wouldn’t suggest investigation over this horrible thing that has happened.
Sandy, as always, you miss the point. Just because something *can* happen or has happened once or even twice does not make it likely to happen again. If you spend all of your time worrying about what might possibly happen you will likely overlook the things that are likely to happen.
Do you spend your time worrying about a plane falling out of the sky and hitting your house OR do you worry about your non-verbal child being able to wander outside of the house? Both of these have happened but the second is far more likely to occur. By your logic you would interview the current owners of any house you look at to see if a plane has ever hit it, because you know, it *could* happen.
This is an example of people without any knowledge spouting off on things they know nothing about. MRI machines, for example, have FDA-reported accidents 100 times per year, including a death in 2001. HBOT has not had a fire in 50 years.
HBOT is much safer than MRI machines, which are also very safe when used correctly. We don’t know if this clinic used bad procedures, but thats the cause of damage and death in every area of medicine and commerce — use things incorrectly and you can kill someone. The fact this is the first in the US in 50 years speaks to the safety. Be sure to use a facility that has an MD, and hires qualified techs. This particular facility had an MD who passed away two years ago, and probably got sloppy and let a child or the adult take a handwarmer, spark toy, or other flame-producing device.
As far as autism, take a look at the Rossignol study. As far as home chambers, they are extremely safe (except for the cheap ones, which can deflate).
So how about staying in the realm of reasonable risks instead of inventing new ones to worry about?
Does that apply to fears of vaccine injury as well?
Nobody is talking about risk-benefit ratio. All medical procedures carry some risk, but it is justified by known benefit.
The real lesson from the Florida case is that a quack treatment clinic exposed a boy and his grandmother to risk, with no reasonable expectation of benefit.
It’s very sad, and it makes me angry that those loving parents spent their money to fly their boy to the US and give him a treatment that wasn’t going to actually help.
This wasn’t a chamber in a hospital. This is a free-standing clinic with multiple chambers and only one doctor on staff.
There’s no indication HBOT could have done anything for this little boy’s CP, and there’s no credible study showing it is an effective treatment for autism.
The recent study on HBOT and autism was, as Prometheus puts it, hot air. http://photoninthedarkness.com/?p=167 It was invented hype by the very people promoting their freestanding clinics and making money from desperate parents.
So how about staying in the realm of reasonable risks instead of inventing new ones to worry about?
Does that apply to fears of vaccine injury as well?
Nobody is talking about risk-benefit ratio. All medical procedures carry some risk, but it is justified by known benefit.
The real lesson from the Florida case is that a quack treatment clinic exposed a boy and his grandmother to risk, with no reasonable expectation of benefit
First of all, AutismNewsBeat, they were there because of all the wonderful progress the boy was making. Get your facts straight and read the stories about how this boy improved since starting HBOT and how the family sacrificed to keep him here in Fort Lauderdale to continue. HBOT has literally saved my son with his autism. He has improved tremdously. And as far as all medical procedures having risks, I will agree with you. Especially since 16 immunizations were given to my two boys at one time (one was four years old, the other boy was six). Now they both have autism. How does that work into your risk-bendfit ratio? I have two damaged children from vaccines, and I BET YOU DO NOT BELIEVE ME. Just like you would not believe in the benefits of HBOT. Did you know a normal child can get autism at age six? I have some pretty convincing home movies, and now a hand flapping, grunting, stemming, humming, disconected, anti-social, zoned out in the flesh child that you could meet…God bless you as you continue to damage innocent children with vaccines. Some day you will be old and there will be no one to run this country because they will all have autism.
Thank you SO MUCH (3VaccineInjuredKids) for saying this for me !! Unless you have a child with autism….or 2 like me….you don’t get it !!! Obviously there are many people on here that believe EVERYTHING they read in the medical books and don’t believe anything they SEE with their own eyes !! We are starting MHBOT this week at home and I for one will be sure to post WHEN my 5.5 yr. old son says MOM for the very first time. Thanks again !!!
So far as I’m aware, Rossignol’s controlled study was appropriately managed – but not replicated. IMHO, this does not make his work “quackery,” but rather experimental. Lots of experimental research has yielded terrific results. I have no idea whether HBOT will turn out to have huge benefits, but I can’t imagine why anyone would object to the suggestion that care be taken in using and selecting HBOT devices and centers!
MJ – of course you’re right that the greatest risks in life come from the most ordinary circumstances. More people die in cars, bathtubs and stairs than anywhere else, I believe. Problem is, you can’t avoid cars, tubs or stairs unless you live in a one-story hut in the wilderness and stay dirty!
But it’s certainly possible to use airbags, grab bars and bannisters to lessen the likelihood of injury. It’s possible to avoid texting on cell phones in cars or playing radios in tubs. And it’s possible to avoid making obvious mistakes like climbing into an HBOT chamber with an electronic device, or setting a chamber up in your own home without ensuring, for example, that the circuit is appropriate and grounded, that there’s a fire extinguisher handy, and that the smoke alarm has fresh batteries.
It’s really just a matter of common sense.
Lisa
MJ~ you missed the point. People can learn from mistakes or bad things happening, and they can here too of this HBOT accident. If parents are not aware of dangers, regardless if they spend their whole day thinking about it or enough to be sure no one is making mistakes or over-using machines or not up-keeping them, then you yourself are missing something.
As always, your point of a plane is hardly comparable, and I am not one who is spending all day thinking about HBOT. Yes, when my kid has tests and such, I make sure there’s no metal in the room. Wouldn’t you?
I would agree with ANB, if one accident doesn’t make one consider things wisely, why wouldn’t vaccines then apply that same thinking? Vaccines however really isn’t the topic, but if one can decide such choices based on other’s experiences, why then not this experience with HBOT.
Then of course we end up with a topic with name-calling, and we are all suppose to be adults here, raising children.
Any environment where the partial pressure of O2 is raised is at risk for fire. If people are not educated in the risks there will be a problem. So yes I believe that units should only be operated by appropriately qualified personnel. Any that the unit needs to have a documentation process and safety protocols in place.
And yes HBOT for Autism is a hot topic at the moment, however at the moment there is no credible evidence based studies indicating HBOT is good of this disease even thou it is been used widely as a treatment.
People need to understand that HBOT is very safe, until you violate the strict safety guidelines that are in place in most centers to prevent this. Every chamber fire in the last 40 years can be attributed to someone bringing something in that shouldn’t be in a chamber. I think that will be the case here! This is a wake-up call to centers to be very vigilant in adhering to all the safety guidelines and protocols for HBOT and to ensure that all the patients and families follow these also!
As for the effectiveness of HBOT & Autism. You have to understand that C/P, Autism, stroke, TBI are brain injuries from ischemia to areas of the brain. The brain can repair certain damaged or dormant areas. HBOT’s mechanism of actions proven via woundcare is the same one that can assist the body in healing damaged areas in any part of the body! There has never been a double blind, scientific study proving parachutes work!
Kev you said – “We have one study from Dan Rossignol et al which has some fairly serious issues with it as regards autism. ”
And your fairly serious issues have fairly serious issues on their own. The criticisms on your site that you link to are problematic at best.
AutismNewsBeat you said “The real lesson from the Florida case is that a quack treatment clinic exposed a boy and his grandmother to risk, with no reasonable expectation of benefit”
So you are now an expert at CP and what treatments are or are not appropriate? Most rational people reserve comment on areas about which they are not familiar instead of assuming that they everything about a particular treatment.
Lisa – you summed it up quick nicely, it is a matter of common sense. Common sense will tell you that an industry with a good safety record is not likely to have an outbreak of explosions. It is a always good idea to have an understanding of what you are doing but raising an alarm over what is so far an isolated incident will only cause more problems. Next thing you know we will problems like have countries killing all pigs to protect against swine flu.
Sandy you said – “you missed the point”
I believe that was my line.
“People can learn from mistakes or bad things happening, and they can here too of this HBOT accident.”
So what exactly happened here, do you know? As far as I know there has not been any information released about why the chamber caught fire. And if we don’t know what happened, how can we learn from it?
“If parents are not aware of dangers, regardless if they spend their whole day thinking about it or enough to be sure no one is making mistakes or over-using machines or not up-keeping them, then you yourself are missing something.”
Huh? Was there a point in there somewhere?
“Yes, when my kid has tests and such, I make sure there’s no metal in the room. Wouldn’t you?”
Uhm, no? I am would be more concerned with them staying calm and tolerating the procedure since that is a greater risk to their health than the very rare chance that an oxygen container is standing right by the machine and ready to crush them. Although I do grant you that killer oxygen containers are out there biding their time.
I would also be focused on the actual procedure and the side effects since that is more likely to occur and cause problems.
I would not spend the entire time trying to second guess every aspect of what the technicians were doing and how they were running the test.
“I would agree with ANB, if one accident doesn’t make one consider things wisely, why wouldn’t vaccines then apply that same thinking?”
Again your point makes no sense. If vaccines have a relation to autism in even a small group (say 0.1%) then that is a huge number of children each year that is at risk. So far for HBOT there has been 1 incident of a chamber having a fire – one incident in decades – so the chance of injury is just a little bit smaller.
MJ~ since you appear to be the expert here, need any say no more. Why don’t you be more productive than to criticize and pick apart every comment here? You seem to enjoy picking apart my comments all the time and trust me, it does not a thing for you. It seems you only comment to argue than to accept some one’s opinion.
I am a parent of a child that has had great success with HBOT (hard chamber, not mHBOT).
We learned about HBOT after learning about the success Duke has been having with umbilical stem cells.
http://pediatrics.duke.edu/modules/dept_peds_annc/index.php?id=79
Unfortunately, we did not save my daughter’s cord blood, and they referred us to HBOT, and this study about stem cells:
http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/290/4/H1378)
We met with a neurologist that has done studies on HBOT for cerebral palsy, and because my daughter had mitochondrial involvement and also static encephalopathy, we also considered the following studies
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/4/e586?maxtoshow=&HITS=40&hits=40&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=fetal+alcohol+spectrum+disorder&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1137556214837_2334&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1&journalcode=pediatrics&eaf
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14941467
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2244616
After a few months of researching and meeting with specialists, we decided that it did not appear to be “quackery”.
When we started HBOT, our daughter was 15 months old and could not put any weight on her legs, and very little on her arms. She could not crawl. She had several diagnoses, static encephalopathy, mitochondrial dysfunction, possible cerebral palsy. By the end of the first week, she was crawling and standing. It is now a year later and the trajectory she was on has completely changed. We have reams of video footage, letters from her geneticist and neurologist, physical therapist and occupational therapist, outlining the phenomenal success she has had. Her blood results changed dramatically after each round as well.
I understand that HBOT might appear to be “quackery”, but please reserve judgment – as many of the indications that are now approved (wounds, acoustic trauma, skin grafting) were also once considered “quackery”.
If neurological disorders are added to the UHMS approved indications list, families will have the option of receiving treatment in a hospital, and regulations will be improved overall.
I think your writing is alarmist and not objective. This is the first US incident of a hard chamber fire – NOT AN EXPLOSION! Get your facts straight. For autism, brain injury, cerebral palsy, stroke, and other conditions not approved by our pill-pushing FDA (how can the drug companies possibly make money off of oxygen – therefore, not approved) – HBOT works. This event is either the result of an overall facility safety issue or the result of standard operating procedures not being followed. It’s a day-to-day operations question: Who was managing the day-to-day ops, and not, Which certs did the principal doctor have (he was ‘certified’ quite adequately in my opinion, as were the other medical professionals). There is much more risk in flying over from Europe than there is in doing HBOT in a well-managed HBOT center. The content provider should try to learn more before parroting the hysteria of the public… unless that’s the goal of this web content.
Myran and others – I find it incredible that you are angry at me for suggesting that parents take common sense safety precautions. Is it your contention that it’s just fine to climb into an HBOT chamber with your laptop on, or plug a home chamber into an ungrounded circuit? Would you have similar objections if someone wrote that wearing seatbelts or installing shower grab bars is a good idea?
IMHO, your objections arise from the fact that HBOT is an experimental treatment for autism and you don’t want any negative concerns raised about the treatment itself. If you read what I wrote, you will see that I did not address HBOT as a treatment (though there are risks there too, JUST AS THERE ARE for any biomedical/pharmaceutical treatment).
Lisa
I think this shouldn’t turn into an argument over whether hyperbaric treatments work on autism or not, this is besides the point of whether or not hbot is safe. Performed correctly, it is safe. The problem could be lack of regulations and safety standards when it comes to freestanding clinics.
I am almost certain there have been more fatalities in the course of driving to a hyperbaric clinic than there ever has been in the administration of a hyperbaric treatment.
I would also say that as I pointed out in my earlier post, many known treatments for diseases were first perceived as investigational or even quack science and I would point to the use of leeches and maggets in wound care as a good example. I could probably find hundreds of examples but it’s beside the point, good science relies on what clinics like this one was doing, and the clinic had an excellent research model.
Hey Kev, every single medical procedure in use today was at one time experimental. According to you, everything not currently approved is quackery. So every bit of experimental medicine and medical research going on today is useless? If everyone had your mindset we would still be bleeding people and operating without anesthesia.
Hey John, these medical procedures that have done so much to keep us all in the West alive and in one piece were *gasp* tested. They weren’t just slapped together because someone thought they’d like to make lots and lots of money from experimenting on kids. Remember Tariq Nadama and chelation?
Bottom line: there’s no good evidence, despite looking that HBOT does a darn thing for CP or autism. Despite that, this boy was in a chamber when it caught on fire. If he hadn’t been in the chamber nothing would’ve happened to him. Now he’s got 90% first degree burns – and all it cost his family was hundreds of thousands of dollars! Cool!
Kev the medical establishment you are so proud of has for years been telling many people with neurological problems that there are basically no solutions – that people should go home and live with their problems. Luckily, some doctors are willing to risk their professional reputation to offer something that actually does work. Most of them that are offering it are not in it to make lots and lots of money as you say. They have family members who need help and “mainstream medicine” cannot or will not provide it – so they are providing it themselves. They know the pain a family feels when they are told a child cannot be helped. They are helping those families.
Thousands of people would beg to differ with you about there being no good evidence of the efficacy of hbot. They have seen it firsthand. I have seen it firsthand. Where is the outcry of the people “bilked” out of their money by providers of hbot? There is no outcry. Why? Because it works.
It is absolutely tragic what happened to the boy and his grandmother. But statistically speaking, hbot is extremely safe. As with everything else, people should be careful who they receive treatment from to minimize the chance of a mishap.
Accidents happen everywhere in life. This one happened to be in a place where it is easy for the uninformed to draw incorrect conclusions and parrot the medical establishment’s position on hbot.
You have a flat earth viewpoint kev. If it were the 1800’s you would be one of the people ridiculing Ignaz Semmelweis for proposing that handwashing stops the spread of disease.
Not to mention the cost of hospital bills and a funeral.
Regardless of the mainstream medical or alerntative, no one really needs to debate such things. However, when one therapy proclaims help for many many different things, one does tend to wonder. And if it worked so well, we’d all be doing it. Fact is the evidence of that just really isn’t there to review.
Since so many people are looking for alternatives to begin with (some may be hard to pass up with all the promises) and since we do not know the cause of the explosion, it could be an over-worked mechanical system or over-worked human error due to all the people gaining the service.
One death nd one burn victim is two too many.
Sandy I agree with you that 2 victims is too many. We just need to keep this accident in perspective. MANY people are injured and killed daily in medical accidents and mistakes. We never hear about most of them because they are commonplace. I just don’t want to see a promising treatment receive bad press because of one mishap.
There is an excellent book by Dr. Paul Harch called The Oxygen Revolution. In it he explains in simple terms the science behind why hbot is effective in so many situations.
I highly recommend it for believers and skeptics alike.
John~ I’d be guessing not many will hear about this HBOT accident since most don’t hear news that relates to things we are interested in autism-wise. Things get bad press all the time, if anything is worth the while, the damage control wont be too bad.
Because parents seem to do things in trends and word of mouth rather than researched findings (no direct intent on HBOT), I would wonder how often things are maintained, if they are over-used and since more people will look into HBOT, it could be the wake up call for those who provide the service and another prevention for in home HBOT’s education on safety.
I would venture a guess that most of are just visiting this site to sound off on an issue that is important to you or someone near you, possibly a few cynics who are taking advantage of a tragedy to vent your frustration towards the healthcare industry in general, particularly this niche field which has been classified as investigational in the application of autism treatment. First of all, many people don’t believe autism is a real disease, and those who do have a wide array of opinions on it’s etiology. I personally believe there is probably only a slim connection to immunizations, enough to investigate but not scientifically substantial. I also personally believe it will take years to get to the root of what it is and how to safely and effectively treat it if at all.
Lisa you said – “I find it incredible that you are angry at me for suggesting that parents take common sense safety precautions. Is it your contention that it’s just fine to climb into an HBOT chamber with your laptop on, or plug a home chamber into an ungrounded circuit? Would you have similar objections if someone wrote that wearing seatbelts or installing shower grab bars is a good idea?”
The problem is taking an alarmist approach to what so far, to the best of my knowledge, is an isolated incident with a treatment that has an excellent safety record. Once is an fluke accident or a mistake, both of which are occurrences that people know how to deal with and accept.
Obviously taking the necessary precautions when using ANY piece of medical equipment is a good idea regardless if that is a home HBOT chamber or a thermometer. But blowing the warnings way out of proportion to the danger is not a good idea either.
“IMHO, your objections arise from the fact that HBOT is an experimental treatment for autism and you don’t want any negative concerns raised about the treatment itself.”
You mean like Kev and AutismNewsBeat commenting here with the I told you it wasn’t a good idea style comments and attempting to portray HBOT as something that is not only “quackery” but can kill you? Which considering the safety history of HBOT itself is a complete misrepresentation of the facts?
I had seventeen HBO treatments for cellulitus of the face. Gratefully, it did an amazing job. My wound is now healing.
I work at a hyperbaric facility that only gives HBO treatments to patients with UHMS approved diagnosis, but as everyone knows all medical progress was usually considered quackery at some point in time. Just because it is not main stream medicine does not mean it work. But you should always be cautious and have safety in mind
Here is a summary of a study using mild HBOT. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2431/9/21
Here is a clip of the safety of the interior of a mild chamber. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvuax9yGLLA&feature=channel_page
This happened to 3 Apollo astronauts years ago when they filled space capcels with pure oxygen.
Then on a training test a tarp set a spark that burned all 3 men to death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1
In keeping the identity of the institution where this took place, I can say, FOR A FACT, that the hyberbaric chamber explosion was due because of HUMAN ERROR and not the actual machine or technology behind it.
Also, it has, in fact been proven to help those who need its therapeutic intervention for one reason or another.
I would’nt rule it out or discourage anybody else from seeking it’s treatment, which is slowly but surely, being proven to be effective.
For those concerned about the saftey or “fire hazzards” of portable hyperbaric chambers with added oxygen please see this clip…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaZeC49fHxw
It’s a tragic story, of course,
but has nothing to do with home systems.
Home systems should never be 100 percent oxygen filled.
If O2 is delivered through a mask
and if the pressure is 1.3 atmospheres
there should be NO danger of fire
and certainly none of explosion.
As a paramedic I can tell you
that ambulances are FULL of electronic equipment,
largely obsolete and in poor condition,
and we never consider shutting any of it off
simply because a patient or two is breathing O2.
As several people pointed out, the “soft” home chambers, unlike the hard shell chamber that blew up in florida, are not filled with highly flammable pure oxygen but rather filled with regular air that is moderately pressurized. It appears that the author of this article did not understand this important distinction which seems to undermine the main safety concern point she is trying to make.
It has been over a year since the incident in Ft. Lauderdale. It will be 1 year of Francesco’s death on the 11th of this month. Yes, this was a rare incident. The fact is that the chamber was not well maintained and the security measures were not functioning, resulting in the fire and eventually the death of this little boy and his grandmother, two precious angels. Another important fact is that the family of these two has yet to obtain justice for their wrongful death. They are not asking for the money, but instead want someone to take responsibility, so that this will not happen to anyone else’s family. No one speak. Everyone involved, including authorities are trying to “brush” this event off as a horrible accident, when it reality it was a horrible HUMAN mistake on the part of the management of this clinic, as they did get “sloppy” and did not properly maintain these machines…this one in particular, which was from 1974. If you have a heart, please join us in our fight for justice for the wrongful death of two precious lives who did and continue to make a difference in so many lives! Please join our Facebook page to show your support and be kept up-to-date. Thank you for your time!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123478114334793&ref=ts
I have used a home hyperbaric unit for three years. It has made a huge difference for my memory and black outs. I take my iphone in with me, make calls, receive calls, and text. I have also watched movies while in it. Mine uses natural air, just under 4.5 times pressure, so it may not be as suseptical to explosion as pure oxygen users. Before HBOT I thought I was going into early stages of alzhiemers. The doctors only suspected mini-strokes but had no solutions to suggest. I found an alternative medical doctor in Roswell, GA who had had success with HBOT and I no longer have any side effects so I am in my unit every day for one hour. Memory has improved but it still isn’t what I would like but I’ll take what I have.