Hypoxia and Bends in F-22 Raptor Pilots: USAF and Congressional Inquiry Update

In the wake of new incidents of pilot hypoxia and bends in the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet, CNN senior national security producer Mike Mount has filed an excellent report this week on the status of ongoing investigations. Choice quotation:

Last month, the two members of Congress released numbers by the Air Force that showed pilots flying the F-22 Raptor reported illness from oxygen deprivation incidents 10 times as often as pilots of other fighter jets. The data showed Raptor pilots have reported 26.43 hypoxia and hypoxia-like incidents per 100,000 flight hours. While that represents a mere fraction of total flight hours, it is far higher than incidents from other Air Force aircraft, including the A-10, the F-15E and the F-16.

See our May 7 post for the CBS 60 Minutes video that fueled this story. Today the US Air Force keeps 187 Raptors flying from bases in California, Alaska, Virginia, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, and Hawaii, where the most recent problems occurred.

[Drawing: A.S. Paper Aircraft Lab]

Hyperbaric Chamber Manufacturers: Meet PBUCH

Thank you, Internet, for bringing a new containerized hyperbaric rescue system to our attention. Add PBUCH S.A., out of Poland, to HyperbaricLink's list of other manufacturers of hyperbaric chambers. PBUCH is short for Przedsiebiorstwo Budowy Urzadzen Chlodniczych, or "Company Plant Engineering," as near as we can tell. Designed to treat decompression sickness (DCS) and for training of submarine crews and undersea divers, the two-compartment system accommodates 10 in treatment and 4 in transfer. We post the video here as a reminder that hyperbaric oxygen therapy has strong roots and many routine uses in military and industrial diving and aviation today. And who doesn't enjoy a product demo so nicely done?



[Video: PBUCH, S.A.]

USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber Featured in Scientific American Blog

For the last month the "Expeditions" blog on the Scientific American website has run an excellent series on the University of Southern California Dornsife Scientific Research Diving program. The May 4 installment covers the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. Written by dive safety officer Gerry Smith, the short piece nicely summarizes the center's important role in treating recreational and scientific divers and others who suffer decompression sickness and air or gas embolism. We've written before about USC Catalina but didn't know the center is funded equally by the Los Angeles County Medical Alert Center and the local diving community and staffed 24/7 by a full-time director, a part-time technician, and some 70 volunteers.

[Photo: Karl Huggins]

Hyperbaric Oxygen Figures in 60 Minutes Exposé on US Air Force's F-22 Raptor Fighter Jet

Last night 60 Minutes interviewed two pilots who refuse to fly the US Air Force's F-22 fighter jet after experiencing serious health problems, including decompression sickness, vertigo, and a chronic "Raptor cough," apparently caused by hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. One of the pilots reports he had to be treated in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber after one test flight. Faulty emergency oxygen controls, charcoal air filters, and other engineering failures have plagued the new aircraft throughout production and testing. Fortunately, the USAF operates some of the best hyperbaric medicine facilities in the world.

Decompression Sickness: "Diving Without Water"

In postscript to yesterday's plug for the Divers Alert Network (DAN) webinar, we ran across a delightful item in the Phuket Gazette. (Let's be careful with that pronunciation.) It's a refreshingly different answer to the question, What's it like to take a dive in a hyperbaric chamber? Hats off to Isaac Stone Simonelli for this charming slice of life. Bonus: Another keen photo of the "Steel Ball Hospital" or "Hyperbaric Hotel" built in 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, and scrapped for metal in World War II.

[Photo: Cleveland State University]

Divers Alert Network Free Webinar Tonight: "Demystifying HBO Treatment for Divers"

Tonight, Tuesday 6 March, at 8 o'clock EDT, the Divers Alert Network (DAN) and Broadway Divers (New York) are hosting a webinar on hyperbaric oxygen treatment for decompression sickness (DCS), or the bends. DAN medic Marty McCafferty will present “Demystifying HBO Treatment for Divers.” The online session is free and open to the public, though limited spots are available. Register and get more information about upcoming events on the DAN website.

British Forces Open "World-beating" Diving and Hyperbaric Test Centre in Gosport, Hampshire

By all appearances the newly refurbished Diving and Hyperbaric Test Centre (DHTC) at Haslar is indeed the state of the art in underwater safety testing and simulation. Defence contractor QinetiQ has made the facility available to the commercial sector as well. Read more at Advance: The UK Magazine for Aviation, Defence, Security and Space Industries.

Toppers: Our 10 Most Popular Stories of 2011

As the year quickly draws to a close, we're thankful for our loyal readers, and for new ones every day. We will work hard to keep bringing you evidence-based hyperbaric oxygen therapy news in the year ahead. Sometimes we hit on a topic, share a video, or link to a story that really strikes a chord. Here's a list of our most popular stories of 2011, in descending order, according to Blogger.

Arthritis: Gout Awareness Day

TBI: Concussion Tests Doing More Harm Than Good?

Should Your Hyperbaric Physician Be Board Certified?

Gingrich Slips HBOT into the Obamacare News Cycle

Hello, Cleveland: HBOT Gets the Plain Deal

HBOT for Radiation Injury of No Use in Nuclear Disaster

National Healing and Diversified to Merge

College Football: New Data on Concussion by Position

Restorix Health Mixes It Up in Greater Seattle

Pioneering Frogman Invented, Named SCUBA

Cheers and best wishes for the New Year.

Keepers: Our Top 10 Favorite Posts of 2011

In 2011 we posted 136 blog entries. Every day we scour the hyperbaric business and science news. Often we're inspired to share the news with you. Sometimes we hit on a topic, share a video, or link to a story that really reminds us why we do this. Here's a quick selection of favorites you may have missed or may wish to read again.

Quad Cities Homeless Man Gets HBOT for Frostbite

FDA Urges Caution in Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

Evidence-based HBOT: Trust It or Trash It?

Evidence-based HBOT Is Not CAM

Mixing Hyperbaric Oxygen with Other Prescription Drugs

HyperbaricLink: The Only HONcode Certified Website Focused Exclusively on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

HBOT Program Oversight: Exposé Makes Good Points

VIDEO: Fire Suppression Test of USC Catalina Chamber, Avalon, California

CRAO: Fast Intervention with Hyperbaric Oxygen Helps Save Student's Eyesight

Serious Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Risk from Ice Resurfacing Equipment at Indoor Rinks

We thank you for your readership and participation in the year past, and we look forward to bringing you even more evidence-based hyperbaric oxygen therapy news in the year ahead.

Decompression Sickness: Hyperbaric Oxygen at NASA

Today we ran across this NASA photo from @Cmdr_Hadfield in Houston, Texas, whose Twitter profile reads: "Mission specialist on STS-74 and performed multiple EVAs on STS-100. Currently training as the commander of Expedition 35." Here he tweets: "NASA's hyperbaric chamber—in case of bubbles in our blood after a long dive. Ready to save a life." Learn more about Commander Chris Hadfield on the Canadian Space Agency website. He's off to the International Space Station via Soyuz rocket in November 2012.

Decompression Sickness: More Major Coverage on HBOT for Lobsters Divers of the Miskito Coast

Add to our September 10 story the following dramatic and beautiful new footage from NBC Rock Center. Along the Caribbean coast off Nicaragua and Honduras, the Miskito people face the constant risk of decompression sickness, or the bends, in their deep-sea pursuit of the coveted spiny lobster. The divers are poorly trained and equipped. Dr Elmer Mejía struggles to provide basic care, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which he sometimes worries may only compound the problem:

We feel very pleased when they improve very quickly at the chamber, but sometimes we are kind of scared because if they improve so quick, so fast, they will think the hyperbaric chamber makes miracles. So they will go back again diving and the next time can be the last time.

Read more at NYDailyNews.com.

Decompression Sickness: HBOT for Lobster Divers

Off the remote Caribbean coast of Honduras and Nicaragua, by tradition and out of economic necessity, deep-sea lobster divers of the Miskito people descend 100 to 120 feet, 12 to 16 times a day, to earn about $3 a pound. Every season a few die. Many end up paralyzed from decompression sickness, or the bends. Read "Devoted to Keeping Lobster Divers of Honduras Alive" in today's New York Times, where we meet Dr Elmer Mejía, a former navy diver, nurse, and paramedic, trained in HBOT at Memorial Hermann, Houston, Texas. His clinic provides the first hyperbaric chamber for Miskito divers.

The article also nicely summarizes the cause of decompression sickness and the benefit of hyperbaric oxygen treatment:

Compression [sic] sickness occurs when a diver ascends too fast and nitrogen in the bloodstream that is normally expelled by the lungs forms bubbles. The bubbles can lodge in the joints or along the spinal cord, causing paralysis. A bubble that reaches the brain causes an arterial gas embolism, which can be fatal.

In the hyperbaric chamber, the atmospheric pressure is raised to what the diver would experience underwater and then reduced over several hours as the diver breathes oxygen through a mask, allowing the nitrogen to be expelled.

We're sure you'll find the story worth spending one of your free Times visits this month.

Pioneering Frogman Invented, Named SCUBA

We missed the death notice last month of Christian Lambertsen, 93, the inventor and World War II military diver who made a name for himself and his self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. Actually he called the first SCUBA gear the Lambertsen underwater respiratory unit (LARU), 1942 patent drawing, right. Go see the vintage underwater film posted by The Atlantic.

Deeper, longer dives no doubt helped the Allied war effort. SCUBA also introduced the world to the pleasures of recreational diving and to the risk of decompression sickness (DCS), or the bends. Soon followed the rapid advancement of modern hyperbaric medicine.

Thumbs up, Mr Lambertsen. 

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Legendary Rock Bassist Mark Tulin Dies At USC Catalina

Mark "Professor Psychedelic" Tulin, 62, bass player with the influential '60s group The Electric Prunes and an experienced deep-sea diver, collapsed while performing volunteer work for the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber in Avalon, California. Tributes are pouring in to the USC-CHC page on Facebook under the post:

It is with deep sadness and a very heavy heart that I inform you of the death of Mark Tulin. He collapsed today while helping out at the Avalon Underwater Clean-Up and had immediate response by Baywatch Avalon and Avalon Fire Department medics, but he could not be revived.

The USC chamber is an emergency facility for SCUBA divers suffering decompression sickness (DCS), or the bends.

Read more about Tulin's career with The Electric Prunes, including a trippy Mike Douglas Show video, at Rock Edition. More recently he played with Smashing Pumpkins, whose Billy Corgan remembers Tulin in his blog.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
 

A Model For Hyperbaric Referral Instructions

How delighted we'd be if every ProfilePlus page in the HyperbaricLink treatment center directory were linked to such clear and complete information for referring physicians as Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle WA) provides on its website. The center's updated Emergency Hyperbaric Referral Instructions page, strictly covering carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, and arterial gas embolism, neatly summarizes:

• Definitions/Causes
• Diagnosis/Symptoms
• Indications for hyperbaric treatment
• EMS management guidelines
• Patient information to capture

We think this simple format is a model of its kind. But why limit such helpful information to emergency indications? Referring physicians might benefit even more from expert guidance on chronic diseases and conditions.

O2.o is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, at www.hyperbariclink.com

FL Lobster Mini Season Tests Alert Network

Every July the event draws scores of amateur "bug" hunters and recreational divers to the southern Florida coast. That spells trouble for emergency first responders and the regional Divers Alert Network. St Mary's Medical Center, West Palm Beach, is one of the hyperbaric chambers that stands ready. Sure enough, the center's advance planning paid off big for one 40-year-old man suffering the bends, as US Coast Guard commanding officer David Ladomirak recounts in another video.

Upstate NY Rescue Divers Run Chamber Scenarios

New York State Police use to keep a helicopter on standby to evacuate diving officers to the nearest chamber-equipped hospital in case of a decompression emergency. Now, through an arrangement with a local dive shop and Jefferson County, the Special Tactics and Rescue (STAR) team operates its own hyperbaric chamber at the Brownville Fire Department. The 6.0-atmosphere multiplace chamber is the only one accessible to New York's 50 state and county divers, from New York City to Buffalo, for practice and emergency use. For these rescuers deep dives usually involve retrieving drowning or murder victims. Thankfully the chamber has been used exclusively for training drills since it was installed two years ago. But what a good idea to keep dedicated equipment at the ready to keep these dedicated professionals safe.

(Photo: Norm Johnston/Watertown Daily Times. State troopers on a chamber training run.)

Followup: Wazee Lake Diving Tragedy

Investigators are learning more from the lone survivor of Saturday's fatal diving accident in Wisconsin. Apparently one of the three men, all experienced divers, raced to the surface in sudden distress from a depth of nearly 200 feet. His two friends followed, skipping decompression stops themselves, to rush to his aid.

Click here to read the Twin Cities Star Tribune report.

The local ABC-TV affiliate also interviewed Dr Bjorn Westguard, a hyperbaric physician at Hennepin County Medical Center, who explains what causes the bends and how hyperbaric oxygen works.

One Diver Dead, One Saved By HCMC Chamber

All around Wazee Lake, Wisconsin, are posted signs warning divers the nearest hyperbaric chamber is three hours away in Minneapolis. The distance proved too great for three men involved in a rare fatal incident of decompression sickness, or the bends. One died of cardiac arrest at the scene. One died after hours of hyperbaric oxygen treatment at Hennepin County Medical Center. One was treated and released.

The region is fortunate to have HCMC at all. We've covered the center's successful battle for survival as our way of asking:

Why doesn't every Level 1 trauma center in America have 24/7 access to a hyperbaric chamber?

As we survey HBOT providers from coast to coast, to update the HyperbaricLink treatment center directory and upgrade select centers to ProfilePlus, we're noting the location of every ER-accessible chamber in the US. Once our survey is complete the hyperbaric community will have a powerful database to assess its emergency preparedness and take action to improve it. This cause is near to our hearts and central to our corporate mission.

Peru: Hyperbaric Entrepreneur Awarded Top Honor

Peru has thousands of miles of Pacific coastline, but it was high-altitude tourism in the Andes that made hyperbaric oxygen therapy a natural pursuit for entrepreneur Gary Urteaga, CEO of Equipar Medical SAC in Lima. Last month Urteaga was awarded the 2010 MYPE President Prize. He earned it by installing the country's first modern hyperbaric chamber and organizing its first International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine.

Urteaga has worked closely with Life Support Technologies Group (Mount Vernon NY), for whom he created an Advanced Hyperbaric Technologies division to develop low-cost, high-quality HBOT chambers designed in the US and engineered and manufactured in South America and Asia.

[Photo: Urteaga, left, with President Alan Garcia of Peru]