Treatment aims to limit use of drugs: Hyperbaric oxygen offered to returning veterans with traumatic injuries

BULLHEAD CITY There is a movement under way to treat returning military veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI) with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) instead of drugs.

Were losing a soldier an hour to suicide, said Janet Franco, who hosts a Las Vegas-based radio program dedicated to helping veterans with those afflictions.

Whats happening when they get back (from active duty) is the high amounts of pharmaceutical drugs that are administered to our soldiers. The side effects are causing more damage than good when it comes to depression and suicidal thoughts, Franco said.

She had a son with a head injury and he tried two or three times to kill himself over the years, so Im very familiar with what these families go through, she said.

To say that we are in a state of emergency is an understatement, Franco said.

The Mayo Clinic website, mayoclinic.org, describes the process known as HBOT: Your bodys tissues need an adequate supply of oxygen to function. When tissue is injured, it requires even more oxygen to survive. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. An increase in blood oxygen temporarily restores normal levels of blood gases and tissue function to promote healing and fight infection.

In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy room, the air pressure is raised up to three times higher than normal air pressure. Under these conditions, your lungs can gather up to three times more oxygen than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure.

Your blood carries this oxygen throughout your body, stimulating the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.

And so the brain gets a chance to heal and re-establish some of those processes, said Scott Leckie, Valley View Medical Center hyperbaric/wound care program director. The brain is a big consumer of oxygen.

Both VVMC and Western Arizona Regional Medical Center offer HBOT for a range of afflictions. The treatment for TBI and

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Treatment aims to limit use of drugs: Hyperbaric oxygen offered to returning veterans with traumatic injuries