Hyperbaric Medicine

Mike Potter was scared and in tears after learning that an infection in his left toe might cost him his leg. So he went to the hyperbaric medicine department at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for a second opinion. A doctor told Potter, a diabetic, that his ruptured toe blister could be treated with a combination of antibiotics and the hyperbaric chamber, which suffuses non-healing wounds with concentrated oxygen.

Panic struck 60 feet down. A student in John Corso's scuba class had spit out her regulator. Survival instincts took over as she found herself unable to breathe. She bolted for the surface in a rush of adrenaline. Corso pursued. He tried to slow her ascent, mindful of what can happen when compressed air expands too fast in the body, like gas fizzing from a bottle of champagne. Two-thirds of the way up, it was Corso--not the student--who got slammed.

Bob Lavacot of La Habra woke up one morning while on vacation with a boil-like ulcer on his chest. He thought little of it until the ulcer started spreading and he began to run a fever. He cut the vacation short and made an appointment with Dr. Bonnie Bock at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. "The tissue and underlying pectoral muscle were already badly infected," Lavacot recalls.

Mike Potter was scared and in tears after learning that an infection in his left toe might cost him his leg. So he went to the hyperbaric medicine department at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for a second opinion. A doctor told Potter, a diabetic, that his ruptured toe blister could be treated with a combination of antibiotics and the hyperbaric chamber, which suffuses non-healing wounds with concentrated oxygen.

Back when he was a Navy medical officer in the 1960s, Dr. John M. Alexander used decompression chambers to treat deep-sea divers suffering from the bends, a potentially fatal condition caused by surfacing too quickly. Today, as director of the West Coast's largest civilian decompression facility, at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Alexander treats patients whose problems usually have nothing to do with diving.

Panic struck 60 feet down. A student in John Corso's scuba class had spit out her regulator. Survival instincts took over as she found herself unable to breathe. She bolted for the surface in a rush of adrenaline. Corso pursued. He tried to slow her ascent, mindful of what can happen when compressed air expands too fast in the body, like gas fizzing from a bottle of champagne. Two-thirds of the way up, it was Corso--not the student--who got slammed.

Bob Lavacot of La Habra woke up one morning while on vacation with a boil-like ulcer on his chest. He thought little of it until the ulcer started spreading and he began to run a fever. He cut the vacation short and made an appointment with Dr. Bonnie Bock at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. "The tissue and underlying pectoral muscle were already badly infected," Lavacot recalls.

Over the years, Michael Jackson has graced more tabloid covers than any other celebrity, the ghost of Elvis included. One memorable tabloid photo from the mid-1980s showed Jackson lying peacefully in a hyperbaric chamber, presumably part of his plan to stay young forever. Perhaps inspired by that iconic image, many health seekers have climbed into hyperbaric chambers of their own. The prospect of slowing or reversing aging is one big draw.

Pure oxygen treatments have begun to kill the virulent strep infection that was destroying the skin and tissue on a Fillmore woman's leg, according to officials at Los Robles Regional Medical Center. Guadalupe Pulido, 63, was rushed to the Thousand Oaks hospital Friday for special therapy to treat a condition popularly known as "flesh-eating bacteria." What started as a pimple a week earlier had spread from her groin to her knee and across her leg. Dr. J.B.

Bob Lavacot of La Habra woke up one morning while on vacation with a boil-like ulcer on his chest. He thought little of it until the ulcer started spreading and he began to run a fever. He cut the vacation short and made an appointment with Dr. Bonnie Bock at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. "The tissue and underlying pectoral muscle were already badly infected," Lavacot recalls.

Bob Lavacot of La Habra woke up one morning while on vacation with a boil-like ulcer on his chest. He thought little of it until the ulcer started spreading and he began to run a fever. He cut the vacation short and made an appointment with Dr. Bonnie Bock at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach. "The tissue and underlying pectoral muscle were already badly infected," Lavacot recalls.

Back when he was a Navy medical officer in the 1960s, Dr. John M. Alexander used decompression chambers to treat deep-sea divers suffering from the bends, a potentially fatal condition caused by surfacing too quickly. Today, as director of the West Coast's largest civilian decompression facility, at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Alexander treats patients whose problems usually have nothing to do with diving.

A total of 48 Mount St. Mary's College students have been treated in a compression chamber for the after-effects of a carbon monoxide leak from a gas heater eight days ago, college and hospital officials said Thursday. The students--suffering chiefly from loss of memory, light-headedness and nausea--were placed in the large chamber for two hours to breathe pure oxygen under barometric pressure twice that of sea level to purge their bloodstreams and body tissue of the gas.

The L.A. Times should be congratulated for the timely article on the use of hyperbaric oxygen (May 2, "A Healing Atmosphere"). It is a very much underused but very beneficial therapy for a variety of medical conditions. As mentioned in the article, I am the "operator" of six hyperbaric chambers and have used hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of patients who suffer chronically from the effects of a stroke for the past five years. The article stated that the American Stroke Assn.