Dr. Paul G. Harch, who operates a clinic on the outskirts of New Orleans, contends treatment in a hyperbaric chamber can alleviate symptoms that follow a concussion. In a small brick building across the street from a Taco Bell in Marrero, La., patients enter a clear plastic capsule and breathe pure oxygen.
The procedure, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, uses a pressurized chamber to help scuba divers overcome the bends and to aid people sickened by toxic gases. But Dr. Paul G. Harch, who operates the clinic there on the outskirts of New Orleans, offers it as a concussion treatment.
One patient, Rashada Parks, said that she had struggled with neck pain, mood swings and concentration problems ever since she fell and hit her head more than three years ago. Narcotic painkillers hadn’t helped her, nor had antidepressants. But after 40 hour long treatments, or dives, in a hyperbaric chamber, her symptoms have subsided.
“I have hope now,” Ms. Parks said. “It’s amazing.”
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This is an excerpt taken from: “Effective Concussion Treatment Remains Frustratingly Elusive, Despite a Booming Industry”, published in the New York Times, July 3, 2015
Written by Barry Meier and Danielle Ivory
Click here to see the entire story in the New York Times
