Rare Disease Day 2012

As we celebrate Leap Day we join millions around the globe who mark Rare Disease Day 2012. This year's theme is Solidarity. We declare ours in support of more funding for more active clinical research into the 6,000 to 8,000 diseases classified as rare. But it also strikes us that diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, infections, and accidents, the major underlying causes of the diseases and conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), do not by any measure qualify as rare. Indeed our field of evidence-based medicine plays an important if sometimes undervalued role in the treatment of the world's most prevalent chronic diseases and traumatic injuries. Just saying.

Lee Memorial Hospital: Local Plug for Fort Myers, Florida, Wound Care Center a Model of Brevity, Clarity

Sometimes just a bit of just the right information communicates best. Hats off to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers, Florida, for landing the kind of local coverage every hyperbaric oxygen treatment center should covet. This little gem from the local NBC affiliate hits all the basics with minimum effort:

• A stirring tale of a 2-year-old girl recovering from burns.
• A short explanation of what wound centers do and how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works.
• A strong case for adapting to meet the public healthcare demands of a rapidly aging population.
• A believable connection to success with advanced, specialized wound care centers.

No doubt the hospital marketing and public relations team and clinical experts played this one clear and straight. That's why this reporter got a great story, this hospital got some great ink, and these readers got another great reason to look into this great new movement in American medicine. All in about 390 words.

[Photo: Lee Memorial Hospital website]

Advanced Hyperbarics Fraudster Pleads Guilty in $2.6 Million Scam

The owner of Advanced Hyperbarics could be sentenced to 45 to 60 years in jail for using false identities to bilk banks out of millions in property loans and for fraudulently billing Medicare, BlueCross BlueShield, and other insurers for physician services never rendered. More details about the case in Friday's Baltimore Sun. Back in August 2010 we reported:

Winnie Joanne Barefoot has been indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of bank, wire, mail, and Social Security fraud and ordered held by a judge of the US District Court in Baltimore. Barefoot owns Advanced Hyperbarics, which operates treatment centers in Millersville MD, Orlando FL, Jacksonville FL, and Bedford PA.

The old Advanced Hyperbarics web address now links to Bay Hyperbaric Group, serving the Millersville location only.* None of these centers ever qualified for inclusion in our hyperbaric oxygen treatment center directory. Indeed, as the masthead of The Sun proclaims, let this story shed "light for all" in the darker regions of the hyperbaric community.

*Advanced Hyperbarbarics Rx in Stanton, California, appears unrelated if unfortunately named.

Concussion, Traumatic Brain Injury, and the National Football League: Duerson Family Sues

This week the family of Dave Duerson filed a lawsuit against the National Football League (NFL) and helmet maker Riddell, claiming they deliberately concealed information about the known risks of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) due to repeated concussions. We covered Duerson's 17 February 2011 suicide in our 11 March 2011 post, "TBI in the NFL: Now All You Have to Say Is 'Duerson'." More about the new lawsuit in the Chicago Tribune.

Earlier this month, as the football season drew to a close, we noticed some new science and new publicity to bolster the Duerson family's complaint. A few you may wish to read:

• "Many Hits, Rather Than A Big One, Pose Greatest Concussion Risk" on National Public Radio.
• "Brain trauma experts call for 'hit count' to prevent injuries to school athletes" in the Guardian.
• "It's Time to Quit Ignoring Sports Head Trauma's Very Real Dangers" on the Daily Beast.

And with that we leave the subject of football until the autumn leaves fly.

[Image: via Chicago Tribune]

Sara's Garden: Two Multiplace Hyperbaric Chambers in Northwest Ohio Before UTMC Toledo

The University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) claims it "houses northwest Ohio’s only multi-person chamber for hyperbaric oxygen therapy."* The good people at Sara's Garden in nearby Wauseon, Ohio, politely beg to differ. Development director Matt Rychener reminds us his center operates not one but two multiplace chambers: their original 5-person and a new 10-person device, pictured right. This information has been published in our Ohio treatment center directory all along. But please note that UTMC is a hospital-based treatment center and Sara's Garden is an independent hyperbaric clinic. CLICK HERE to learn more about hyperbaric treatment center types.

* In our February 15 post we link to UTMC and OxyHeal press releases that repeat this error.

[Photo: Cindy Baden, sarasgarden.org]

KESMARC Chamber Blast: Ongoing State and Federal Investigations Could Take 6 Months

As we reported last week, the Marion County Sheriff's Office has ruled the February 10 chamber blast at KESMARC in Ocala, Florida, an accident. The state Fire Marshal's Office and the federal Occupational and Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are still conducting separate investigations. Final reports may not be completed for six months. CLICK HERE for some fine reporting by Rachael Whitcomb of DVM Newsmagazine via DVM360.com. Whitcomb speaks with KESMARC Kentucky owner Kirsten Johnson and Dennis Geiser, DVM, director of hyperbaric services at the University of Tennessee’s Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences. Geisner says he and others are working to establish a veterinary hyperbaric medicine society, training and certification programs, and safety standards

Roundup: New (and Improved) Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Centers

Here we list a few more wound care centers that made the news this month, but whose new information has not yet made our hyperbaric treatment center directory.

• Advanced Wound Care Center at Milford Hospital (Milford, Connecticut), pictured right. Read the stories in the Milford Mirror and the Milford-Orange Bulletin.

• Wound Healing Center at Kingston Hospital (Health Alliance of the Hudson Valley, Kingston, New York) has relocated and expanded. Read the story in the Times Herald-Record.

• Wound Care Institute at Lehigh Regional Medical Center (Lehigh Acres, Florida) is now under the management of Diversified Clinical Services. Read the story on news-press.com.

Learn more about how and why to list your center with HyperbaricLink. It's as easy as 3-2-1. But to participate you must provide us with some basic information about your center.

[Photo: Milford-Orange Bulletin]

National Healing: Leading Advanced Wound Care Provider Puts Limb Salvage in Perspective

We are happy to see someone in the advanced wound care community take some credit, where credit is due, for the remarkable decline in lower-limb amputations among Americans with diabetes. In a news release subtitled "National Healing Corporation Wound Care Centers Offer Alternative to Amputation" we learn the company's more than 500 centers treated more than one million wounds in 2011, with a healing rate of 89% and overall amputation rate of just 1%. CLICK HERE to read the January 24 report from the CDC. See also our February 1 post, "Diabetes Amputation Rates Declined Sharply in US Between 1998 and 2008." Access to accredited hyperbaric facilities with certified hyperbaric physicians and technicians is still very much a public health problem. “It is imperative that we educate patients and families about the advanced treatments available to prevent amputation,” said National Healing EVP medical affairs Scott Covington, MD, FACS, CHWS. We wholeheartedly agree.

Michigan State University and Yucatan Department of Health Form Hyperbaric Medicine Partnership

The Michigan State University (MSU) College of Osteopathic Medicine and Institute for International Health has partnered with the Yucatan Department of Health to provide hyperbaric oxygen therapy at the new University Hospital Augustin O'Horan in Merida, Mexico. The triple-lock, 23-person multiplace chamber, measuring 53 feet by 10 feet, is the first of its kind in Latin America, according to the MSU news release. The center will focus on "trauma, burns, stroke, wound healing, palliative care, toxicology, and osteopathic medicine." We could guess, but would like to know for sure, who manufactured this impressive chamber.

[Photo: Michigan State University]

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment for Radiation Injury: Important New Clinical Evidence Published in Cancer

The use of hyperbaric oxygen for delayed soft tissue radionecrosis (STRI) and osteoradionecrosis (bony necrosis) just got another healthy dose of first-rate clinical evidence. For eight years investigators, led by Neil Hampson and UHMS president-elect John Feldmeier, tracked outcomes in patients receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment for radiation injury after cancer therapy at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. They noted significantly positive results in patients with injuries of the jaw, skin, larynx, bladder, and bowel. Read "Prospective assessment of outcomes in 411 patients treated with hyperbaric oxygen for chronic radiation tissue injury" in the journal Cancer [DOI: 10.1002/cncr.26637]. Or there's an excellent summary on MedWire News.

KESMARC Chamber Blast: What We Know for Sure

We patiently await the official report by investigators probing the fatal chamber explosion in Ocala, Florida. Until then we will not hazard a guess about what may have happened. Here's what we know for sure:

• The chamber manufacturer, Veterinary Hyperbaric Oxygen (VHO2), in Lexington, Kentucky, has urged its customers not to use their devices until more is known.
• Hyperbaric oxygen is common healthcare for equine athletes and widely used to treat "the holy trinity of racehorse maladies": bleeders, soft tissue, and tying up. Learn more on the Retired Racehorse blog.
• The rehabilitation center where the blast occurred, operated by Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center (KESMARC), has a sterling reputation in the equine sports and veterinary medical communities.
• The woman killed in the blast, Erica Marshall, 28, had safely treated two to six horses a day for the last two years. Read more in Horsetalk.
• The woman injured in the blast, Sorcha Moneley, 33, escaped with a bump on the head, a broken ankle, and a fractured pelvis. Read more in Independent.ie.
• The horse killed in the blast was Landmark's Legendary Affaire, pictured here.

More when we learn more, and not before.

UPDATE: 9p Thu 16 Feb 2012. Marion County Sheriff's Office has completed its investigation, noting conflicting eyewitness accounts but concluding the blast was an accident. Read the full story at Ocala.com. The state Fire Marshal's Office and the federal Occupational and Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are still conducting separate investigations.

[Photo: Leslie Threlkeld/USEA]

First Look: OxyHeal 4000-Omega Hyperbaric Chamber at University of Toledo Medical Center

The University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) in Toledo, Ohio, has swiftly opened its Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center, featuring the new OxyHeal 4000-Omega multiplace chamber. (See our January 5 post.) Named for its omega (Ω) shaped geometry, the chamber is the first of its kind in the US. At 21 feet long and 10 feet wide it can accommodate 10 patients seated and 4 lying down. University of Toledo is also home base for John Feldmeier, DO, president-elect of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). CLICK HERE to read today's UTMC announcement. CLICK HERE to read OxyHeal's press release.

[Photo: UTMC]

Restorix Health Opens Center at Island Hospital in Anacortes, Washington

Island Hospital (Anacortes, Washington) opened its Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center on January 9. The 3,000-square-foot facility is the third in the expanding Restorix Health network, including centers in Issaquah, Washington, and at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Murietta, California. CLICK HERE to download Restorix Health's news release. Welcome to the hyperbaric medical community, Island.

[Photo: Restorix Health website]

Answering the Why of Veterinary HBOT: The Inspiring Tale of 2011 Horse of the Year Neville Bardos

Seeing that today's hyperbaric oxygen therapy news remains clogged with pickups and followups to the KESMARC Ocala tragedy, we feel it's only right to post a much more upbeat story we've had bookmarked since mid-January. With our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to veterinary physiotherapist Sasha Moneley, who was seriously injured in the blast.

Why do veterinarians take such significant risks to treat equine athletes in hyperbaric chambers? Because it works. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) played a leading role in the inspiring story of Neville Bardos, named 2011 Horse of the Year by the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) and a leading contender for the London 2012 Olympics. Fire killed 6 of 11 horses in Neville's barn last May. He was successfully treated with HBOT for smoke inhalation. Read "Fire Survivor and a Possible Olympian: A Horse Named Neville" in the New York Times, which includes a beautifully photographed video and slideshow. And definitely check out this stirring video tribute on the USEF Facebook page.

[Photo: Josh Haner/New York Times]

KESMARC Ocala Hyperbaric Chamber Explosion: Update and Background

More details are emerging about Friday's hyperbaric chamber explosion at the Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center (KESMARC) in Ocala, Florida. The horse was not tranquilized and became unruly during treatment, and technicians had begun shutting down the chamber when the horse kicked and the explosion occurred. WESH Orlando has run the most complete coverage from the scene. CLICK HERE to read the full story, including a photo slide show and two fine video news reports. For more background see our previous stories on veterinary hyperbaric medicine.

[Photo: Marion County (FL) Sheriff's Office]

BREAKING: 28-year-old Woman and Horse Killed in Hyperbaric Chamber Explosion in Florida

Via HBOTechBlog we learn of a tragic explosion this morning at the Kesmarc equine rehabilitation facility near Ocala, Florida. One woman is dead, another injured. The horse was also killed. Read more at Central Florida News 13 and in the Gainesville Sun.

UPDATE, 5:56 PM
According to a report on Ocala.com, officials and other sources said the horse "started kicking" and a horseshoe striking the interior of the chamber may have caused a spark.

[Photo: Central Florida News 13]

World's Largest: New Hyperbaric Facility at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, NSW, Australia

The new rectangular hyperbaric chamber at the Prince of Wales Hospital, the latest handiwork of Fink Engineering, boasts four compartments, quadruple locks, a 6 ATA rating, and seating for 30. Arguably the world's largest, the project weighs in at A$5.1 million, or about US$5.4 million. Click PLAY to watch the video below. Read more on ninemsn and the Fink Engineering website.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Family of Six Treated in Chamber at University of Maryland Shock Trauma

An entire family succumbed to furnace exhaust in their home early Tuesday and is now recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning after being rushed to the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center. See the full story on WUSA9. UM is not yet listed in our Maryland treatment center directory. The center may operate the only 24/7 hyperbaric chamber in the Washington-Baltimore region, as this report claims. We also note nearby chambers at Northwest Hospital in Randallstown, a UHMS accredited facility with a Level Two trauma center. We're on a mission to gather the most complete and reliable information about emergency-ready hyperbaric chambers to treat carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning, smoke inhalation, burns, and other traumatic injuries.

BREAKING: AP Puts Michael Phelps in the Wrong Kind of Chamber

USA Today, the Washington Post, and hundreds of media outlets this afternoon are running an Associated Press (AP) story that incorrectly identifies the medical device used by 16-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as a hyperbaric chamber. The device, Phelps said, simulates an altitude of 8,000 feet. That would make it a hypo- not a hyperbaric chamber.

[Photo: Michael Thomas, AP]

Studying Hyperbaric Oxygen and Mystery Ointment in Tulsa, Oklahoma

We always enjoy seeing a hyperbaric oxygen treatment center win some choice local media coverage. This story, about St John Wound Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earns bonus points for plugging a clinical trial of the mystery ointment Nexigone. It's a simple misspelling. Mystery solved. With a little googling we dug up Nexagon, whose active ingredient is

... a natural, unmodified antisense oligonucleotide that down-regulates the key gap junction protein connexin43 to dampen inflammatory responses and enhance healing.

They call it a gap junction modulator. Any questions? Learn more on the CoDa Therapeutics website. ClinicalTrials.gov lists eight Nexagon studies completed, recruiting, or in the works.

We also note that St John has not yet made our Oklahoma treatment center directory. Come on now, everybody. It's as easy as 3-2-1.

[Photo: News On 6, Tulsa]

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: West Virginia's Only Emergency-Ready Hyperbaric Chamber Saves Life

Last week St Francis Hospital's Center for Hyperbaric Medicine in Charleston, West Virginia, successfully treated a local hotel guest for severe carbon monoxide poisoning. Another was pronounced dead at the scene. An exhaust pipe from a gas-powered swimming pool heater was the source of the leak. Read the full account in the Charleston Daily Mail.

Some details in this story caught our attention. Dr Lester Labus told reporters his patient arrived at the hospital with 42% carbon monoxide (CO) in his blood. Some additional figures:

• Mild symptoms begin at 10%-20%
• More serious symptoms begin >20%
• Seizures or death occur at 50%-60%
• Half-life of CO with room air = 5 hours
• Half-life of CO breathing pure oxygen = 45 minutes
• Half-life of CO breathing hyperbaric oxygen = 23 minutes

We're checking these facts. We cannot be 100% sure, either, about the article's claim that St Francis operates the only 24/7 access hyperbaric chamber in the state. Our treatment center directory lists five other West Virginia centers, in Bridgeport, Fairmont, Huntington, Morgantown, and Wheeling. None has provided HyperbaricLink with full information about their equipment, facilities, and staff.

We urge all hyperbaric oxygen therapy providers in West Virginia and across the nation to keep us up-to-date about their centers. It's as easy as 3-2-1.

[Photo: Charleston Daily Mail]

Super Bowl Postscript: The Last Play of the Last Game

Hyperbaric oxygen may have played a role in what some call the biggest story of Super Bowl XLVI. Last night's game ended with a Hail Mary pass to an injured Rob Gronkowski, who set a regular-season record for tight ends with 17 touchdown catches. This wasn't one of them. Nursing a high ankle sprain, Gronkowski finished just two catches for 26 yards in the Super Bowl. A wonder he played at all. Add him, with an asterisk, to our list of NFL stars using hyperbaric oxygen chambers. Or so one orthopaedic surgeon guesses. Dr Paul Cain, head of sports medicine at Central Maine Orthopaedics, explains the severity of Gronkowski's injury and the probable use of RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), a walking boot to immobilize the ankle, ultrasound, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Read "Super Bowl: Auburn doc talks Gronkowski sprain" in the Lewiston (Maine) Sun Journal.

[Photo: Richard Mackson, US PRESSWIRE]

Super Bowl, Super Hype, Super Violative NFL Promotion of Mild Hyperbaric Bag

We've grown accustomed to people hawking mild hyperbaric bags on the web with utter disregard for applicable laws against off-label promotion. Manufacturers, resellers, entrepreneurs, fraudsters, quacks—they fight amongst themselves for the attention of unsuspecting healthcare consumers. It's a brisk trade.

Now the National Football League has published this video testimonial by Cleveland Browns linebacker D'Qwell Jackson. It crosses a line. By posting its 28 December profile of Jackson, the League has become complicit in the violative promotion of a medical device.

The NFL has not yet responded to our repeated email and voicemail messages.

Again, we concur with the National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology's April 2011 position statement on Portable, Low-pressure, Fabric Hyperbaric Chambers. See our recent posts from 30 January, "Football Injury Rehab: Bad Information Sparks Silly Debate About Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy," and 22 January, "NFL Divisional Playoffs: Which Players Are Using Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers?" Learn more about hyperbaric chamber manufacturers and hyperbaric chamber types on HyperbaricLink.com.

CAUTION: The following promotional video clearly violates FDA regulations. Portable, inflatable, fabric chambers are FDA-cleared for acute mountain sickness only. They're not safe for unattended self-treatment at home. They're certainly not safe to sleep in. And no hyperbaric chamber is approved for the treatment of Jackson's torn pectoral muscles or other such sports-related injuries.

New Center Profile: Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Melrose, Massachusetts

HyperbaricLink welcomes the new Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, part of Hallmark Health, in Melrose, Massachusetts. Medical director Dr Alfonso Serrano and team promoted the center's opening with an open house, and the Melrose Patch ran this friendly introduction.

Roundup: New Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Centers

Here we list a handful of wound care centers that made the news last month but have not yet made our hyperbaric treatment center directory.

• TMC Center for Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine (Texoma Medical Center, Ambulatory Care Center, Sherman, Texas). Visit the center's web page.

• Wound Healing Center (Adventist Health, Hanford, California). Read the story in the Hanford Sentinel.

• Wound and Hyperbaric Treatment Center (Adirondack Medical Center, Saranac Lake, New York). Read the story in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

• Glenwood Hyperbaric and Wound Care Center (Glenwood Regional Medical Center, West Monroe, Louisiana). Visit the center's web page and watch a short video.

• Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine (Memorial Hospital, Conway, New Hampshire). Read the story in the Conway Daily Sun.

Learn more about how and why to list your center with HyperbaricLink. It's as easy as 3-2-1.

[Photo: Adirondack Daily Enterprise]

Diabetes Amputation Rates Declined Sharply in US Between 1988 and 2008

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report a dramatic reduction in amputations due to diabetes over the last two decades. Read "Declining Rates of Hospitalization for Nontraumatic Lower-Extremity Amputation in the Diabetic Population Aged 40 Years or Older: US, 1988-2008" in Diabetes Care, the journal of the American Diabetes Association. In related press coverage (see Newsday) the authors attribute the decline to earlier diagnosis and preventive foot care. We might suggest advanced wound care centers had an awful lot to do with it, too. From the HyperbaricLink Commentary on our diabetic ulcers page:

Hyperbaric oxygen plays an increasingly important role in the treatment of problem wounds and limb salvage. But access to accredited hyperbaric facilities and certified hyperbaric physicians and technicians is a public health problem. In 2004 as many as two-thirds of nursing home patients with NPUAP Stage II or worse pressure ulcers were not enrolled in wound care treatment programs [NCHS, 2011]. In diabetes-related wounds alone, US hospitals performed 66,000 toe, foot, and leg amputations in 2006 [CDC, 2011], for which health economists have estimated a cost of $3 billion per year [ACA, 2008]. More and more hospitals and health networks today are opening advanced wound care and hyperbaric centers to serve this unmet clinical need. Even if chronic wounds were its only indicated use, HBOT would be assured a place in evidence-based medicine for quality and cost-effective healthcare.

That's our story, and we're sticking to it.

[Image: American Diabetes Association, Diabetes Care website]