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.
THE CHINESE RESULTS
Dr. Paul Harch, the director of hyperbaric medicine at LSU in New Orleans and founder of HBOT.com, says HBOT appears to be working for most coronavirus cases.
Months ago, when the coronavirus was still centered in China, Dr. Harch worked with a group of Chinese doctors who were studying the effects of the HBOT on severely ill COVID-19. patients.
The results of the Chinese study that Dr. Harch helped publish in English were among the first to show HBOT had helped dozens of COVID-19 patients avoid being placed on ventilators and recover from the virus, including five critically ill patients, who all recovered and have been released.
“The science is there to argue hyperbaric oxygen for coronavirus,” Dr. Harch said in a recent Zoom interview from his home office. … more
