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Ed Yeates ReportingAnother Utah hospital has gone hyperbaric to speed up the healing of wounds. Ed Yeates and a few others took a dive in the new chamber today to get a feel for the plunge.
After finding clothes in my closet that were free of any synthetic weavings, I was ready. All of us in the chamber today had to wear 100% cotton clothes. No colognes, no perfumes, no gel in the hair, no excessive jewelry. These are all precautions as you start taking the dive. And no microphones.
Joining me inside the eight person steel tank were Jerod Page with the Deseret Morning News and Heidi Toth with the Provo Daily Herald. Our host was Dr. Eugene Worth, Medical Director for the new Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Utah Valley Regional Hospital.
We were declared free of any material that might produce a static charge, a no no in hyperbaric chambers that use 100 percent oxygen.
The door is sealed and down we go, to two atmospheres of pressure. That's double the pressure on the surface and comparable to a dive 33 feet under the ocean.
We felt fullness in the ears. No pain, but enough fullness so you would have to keep popping your ears. Also at one point in the dive, you could feel the temperature rise quite dramatically.
Eugene Worth, M.D., Medical Director, Hyperbaric Medicine Center: "If we put that patient in a high oxygen environment, which we can do under pressure, then the white blood cells have enough oxygen in them to kill the bacteria."
After 93 sessions inside a chamber, Richard Losee not only recovered but didn't need any limbs amputated.
Richard Losee, Former Patient: "I can walk, have two legs and my feet and I can actually walk."
And for diabetics with severe foot wounds? Hyperbaric therapy spawns the growth of new blood vessels, healing the wound from the bottom up.
With today's grand opening, Utah Valley now becomes the third Utah hospital providing hyperbaric medicine.
