26/10/2017
When he was 2, Eli suffered brain damage due to hypoxia. It left him stuttering and unable to learn to read. 23 years later, thanks to an innovative treatment, he has gotten his voice back and can finally read and write. His ability to concentrate and memory have also drastically increased.
It may sound like something out of a science fiction novel, but a device capable of helping a stutterer sing and making people confined to wheelchairs walk again is already here. It is called a hyperbaric chamber, and is used to administer oxygen therapy, a treatment which has shown incredible results.
Each day close to 150 patients visit the Yitzhak Shamir (formerly Assaf Harofeh) Medical Center in Israel to undergo treatment in its hyperbaric oxygen chamber facility, which is the largest in the world. They are referred there for anything from osseous infections that do not respond to medications to injury-related neurological damage to non-healing diabetic wounds. A typical cycle takes consists of 60 daily sessions and takes about 3 months to complete.
Treatment takes place inside a specialized room, where a patient breathes in oxygen administered at substantially higher than atmospheric pressure. During treatment, oxygen saturation level is elevated from 100 to over 1100 mm Hg. This increases oxygen supply to damaged tissues, facilitating growth of new cells, reduction in swelling and regeneration of bone and soft tissues.
Eli’s isn’t the only amazing recovery story. A young woman with diabetes, who was confined to a wheelchair following a stroke, was referred for treatment of a non-healing wound on her leg. The results exceeded all expectations. Not only did the wound close completely, when she left the hospital, she did it on her own two feet.
