NEW ORLEANS — In the 80s and 90s, Southeast Louisiana was a major hub for commercial, offshore divers. And with that came the medical expertise for oxygen treatments for their decompression illness.
That medical technology soon filtered into hospitals and trauma centers to treat other patients. And now New Orleans is about to be at the forefront of this medical field again.
Since the 1990s, Medical Watch has been following the studies and treatments by local doctors using hyperbaric oxygen chambers.
They've treated preemies born with deficits, children who nearly drowned, troops who suffered traumatic brain injury on the battlefield, football concussions, strokes, and long COVID patients.
And while there are doctors who don't believe the technology has been proven in scientific studies, and medical schools not teaching the treatment, there are specialists who say the emerging science shows pressurized oxygen chambers rev up healing, helping to regenerate damaged tissues at a cellular level.
So, a local doctor, who is an expert in hyperbaric medicine, has teamed up with an attorney who has seen hyperbaric save his clients. They came up with an idea, why waste valuable time bringing the patient to the hyperbaric chamber when they could bring the chamber to the patient?
“If the brain is injured, either by non-supply of blood or by trauma," said Dr. Keith Van Meter, Section head of Emergency Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center. "It lessens the inflammation and it gets oxygen into each cell, in order to power recovery (in) almost any tissue loss, whether it's the brain, or whether it's muscle, or skin that's been damaged,” he said.
“I've seen some of the miracles that Dr. Van Meter and his people have done bringing people, literally, not figuratively, literally back to life,” said Attorney Bobby Delise, Founder and CEO of HyperVan.
Dr. Van Meter has teamed up with Delise and founded HyperVan. It will be the first ambulance with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber on board. Getting to the scene fast can change the outcome.
“So, what we at HyperVan want to do is, we want to close that window," said Delise. "So it's not a golden hour, it could be a golden five minutes when the ambulance arrives,” he said.
It will be built in New Orleans by a contracted engineering team. HyperVan will train the paramedics. The van will be able to operate as a regular ambulance or mobile hyperbaric chamber. In fact, they plan to donate the HyperVan to the New Orleans Health Department.
“By having New Orleans be at the forefront of providing hyperbaric oxygen therapy in an emergent setting, because unfortunately a lot of gunshot wounds in New Orleans,” said Delise.
It's expected to roll out within a year.
They will build three HyperVans to start, one to take calls, one to train paramedics, and one to be crash-tested.
Learn more at Hypervan.net
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