The Tribune

Doctors Hospital Health System (DHHS) has acquired the latest monoplace system for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), its president describing it as “a significant investment in the future” of both the company and Bahamian patients.

The HBOT department launched in March 2014, and Barry Rassin said: “This is a significant investment in the future not only of Doctors Hospital Health System and Bahamas Medical Centre, but of Bahamian patients.

“Yes, this will help with our bottom line, but most importantly, it allows us to take our wound care to the highest level of quality so we can address people’s issues and get them to heal as speedily as possible.”

A few years after being diagnosed with diabetes, Dilith Nairn stepped on a tack and, as often happens to diabetics, developed a wound that eventually became infected.

When a team of physicians and wound care specialists at Doctors Hospital told him his foot was not healing as they had hoped, he knew all too well what his future could hold.

His wife, Regina, was the first one to develop diabetes. She ended up having her leg amputated and later died, he says, as a result of diabetes-related complications.

The 61-year-old retired manager’s outcome so far has differed greatly from that of his wife. His physicians prescribed HBOT and that has spared his foot twice and, he believes, his life.

Although his first series of HBOT treatments was successful, it was his most recent series as one of the first patients at the Oxygen Chamber at Bahamas Medical Centre that has him speaking about this life-changing therapy.

“I hadn’t been doing what the doctors told me to do, and so my foot got really bad. Doctor Iferenta finally told me that he no longer cuts off toes, but if I didn’t take better care of myself, he was going to have to cut off my whole foot. I saw what this did to my wife and so I got serious and went for the hyperbaric sessions and wound care he prescribed. Once I did that, my foot finally started to get better,” Mr Nairn recalls.

“Having been through it, I would recommend that anybody with foot problems from their diabetes try this chamber because it does make a difference and gave me a second chance at life.”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is an advanced medical treatment enabling patients to breathe pressurised 100 per cent oxygen. The air we breathe naturally has only 21 per cent oxygen. HBOT triggers natural wound-healing abilities to help the body heal more effectively.

Every cell in the body needs oxygen to function, and HBOT increases the oxygen content in the blood stream, bone marrow, tissue and cells, facilitating faster healing.

Emergency Room and wound care specialist, Dr James Iferenta, said: “It’s going to be incredible as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy becomes more mainstream.

“Most of our HBOT patients are going to be diabetics, and there is a large and growing population of people here suffering from that chronic disease.”

Unless a patient presents with a gangrenous infection, studies show that HBOT can eliminate the common risk of amputation in the case of diabetic wounds and ulcers.

“What this means is quite simple,” said Dr Iferenta, “HBOT leads to improved quality of life, less morbidity and less mortality.”

The Perry 40’ Hyperbaric Monoplace Chamber at Bahamas Medical Centre is not the first hyperbaric chamber in the Bahamas, but it is the first to accommodate just one patient at a time, providing heightened privacy and comfort.

Hyperbaric therapy was initially used in the Bahamas as a decompression treatment for scuba divers who had ‘the bends’.

“We have it available to treat divers. However, the volume of divers who would need this kind of treatment is very low – less than five cases a year – so while we’re available to them, that’s not what is going to keep this department busy,” explained Mr Rassin.

Although the bulk of the hyperbaric business is expected to come from diabetic wound care, the list of uses continues to grow.

In addition to diabetic ulcers, there are patients who are involved in trauma incidents who can benefit from HBOT. General surgeons see it as a way to increase the healing rate of complex incisions

HBOT has also been found to benefit patients who suffer from nerve-related and auto-immune diseases, including Lupus, or have experienced a Stroke.

One of the first patients referred to HBOT at Bahamas Medical Centre was a cancer patient suffering from radiation cystitis. His medical team had exhausted all other methods of controlling the bleeding caused by inflammation, and HBOT was determined to be the final treatment to improve his condition.

HBOT is also being used pre-surgery, as it is known to improve outcomes and result in faster healing times.

“The reaction from the local physician community has been very positive. We introduced it to a number of specialists and they are very keen. They appreciate its benefits and are already coming up with other diagnoses that it could be used for within their own specialties,” said Mr Rassin.

HBOT is covered by many insurance plans in most of the common indications, however there is also a growing list of other conditions and ailments where HBOT is found to make a difference.