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From Louisiana to Long Island, hyperbaric chambers, once used only to treat divers suffering from the bends, are increasingly being used to treat COVID-19 patients with surprising success.
While the numbers are small, doctors at more than a dozen hospitals across the country say hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is saving the lives of even the most critically ill coronavirus patients.
"The results thus far are pretty impressive," Dr. Thomas Serena, founder and director of the SerenaGroup, a family of wound, hyperbaric and research companies, said in a recent interview.
At NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, New York, Dr. Scott Gorenstein, the director of hyperbaric medicine, said, "I'm encouraged that hyperbaric oxygen could be a benefit."
[...] Their study compared 20 COVID-19 patients who received HBOT to 60 similar patients who did not. While their study is being peer-reviewed and has yet to be published, the results they shared are stunning.
Of the 60 patients who did NOT receive HBOT, half of them needed to be placed on ventilators and 13 died. That's a mortality rate of 22%. At the same time, the 20 patients who did receive HBOT, only two needed to be placed on ventilators and both died, which is a much lower mortality rate of 10%.
"It's small numbers," Dr. Lee noted in a cautious tone but added, "The findings suggest that hyperbaric oxygen could reduce the mortality of this disease by half."
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday July 27 2020, @05:31PM (2 children)
The Sun Sentinel article is unreliable as all hell, starting with
No pure oxygen in a pressure chamber - it's some kind of a mixed atmosphere. As bad as the article starts out, it does go on to cite a number of safety violations, such as the chambers not being grounded, faulty electrical work in and around the chambers, lack of maintenance records - and much more. Sensationalist reporting, on a crazy substandard facility.
The PDF is very informative. It puts the lie to the above claim of a pure oxygen atmosphere, early on.
I'm having problems copying text from the PDF, but the introduction is relevant here: Chamber fires before 1980 were caused by electrical shorts, and since 1980, fires caused by prohibited sources of ignition carried into the chamber. That same introduction goes on to distinguish between oxygen enriched atmospheres >= 28% and normal atmospheres, 23.5% oxygen.
I can see that I should have put a "properly maintained and operated facility" somewhere in my earlier statement. I will do so here:
In a properly maintained and operated modern (less than 30 years old) facility, Grandma has just about zero chance of causing a fire with static electricity. Far more likely that she starts a fire by sneaking in a cigarette and a lighter.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 27 2020, @06:20PM (1 child)
Pick whatever other sources of info you trust [google.com] the accident happened. By criminal negligence. Perhaps you trust the health news Florida [usf.edu]?
Under critical level of use and under the operations of an overworked personnel? For how long you reckon they'll stay "properly maintained and operated"? I won't bet for longer that a couple of months.
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I admit this looks a better, cheaper and safer approach [soylentnews.org] to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2020, @08:34PM
We get it, we get it. You have a mortal fear of probabilities. Just sign the damn do-not-store-hyperbaric form, file it next to your do-not-resuscitate form and let the adults have a normal conversation.