His doctors agree that the treatment has helped him recover. I'm very, very appreciative that I had a doctor who is a believer in it, because I think that amputation is just the first thing that comes to mind for a lot of physicians. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, viewed for years by many doctors as being outside the mainstream, has gained acceptance in the medical establishment. A small cadre of physicians across the country is using the therapy to treat a growing list of dangerous conditions, including wounds that won't heal, bone and soft tissue infections, carbon monoxide poisoning and tissue damage to onetime cancer patients who received radiation therapy 10 or 15 years earlier. The treatment also has been used effectively for diabetics and people with sickle cell anemia.
Amputation is a tremendous loss.
Today there are about 500 chambers nationwide, including two one-person units at George Washington, two at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and two at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. There are more units in Baltimore, including a 60-foot long chamber that the Maryland Shock Trauma Center uses to treat as many as 21 patients at a time. Insurance, including Medicare, covers approved uses. Even some of the skeptics have come around because they've seen people who have had a wound for several years, and all of a sudden, they heal. Years ago, many physicians belittled the notion that oxygen therapy could help anyone other than people with carbon monoxide poisoning or decompression sickness, known as the bends, from undersea diving accidents.