CORONAVIRUS & HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY

March 2020
A WHITE PAPER:

CORONAVIRUS & HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY

Barry Meuse, MA, Colonel, USAF, Ret, President & Chairman
Paul Hoffecker, CEO/Executive Director
Ray Cralle, PT, Director
Dom D’Agostino, PhD, Director
Daphne Denham, MD, Director
Xavier Figueroa, PhD, Director
Mike Flynn, Lt Gen, USA, Ret, Director
Ed Di Girolamo, Director
Julio Gonzalez, Director
Diane Levitan, VDM, Director
Gina Loudon, PhD, Director
Joe Maroon, MD, Director
Tami Peterson, PhD, Director
George Wolf, MD, Colonel, USAF, Ret, Director
CORONAVIRUS & RESPIRATORY FAILURE
“Amid the Coronavirus epidemic/pandemic it bears remembering the application of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to the last major pandemic that impacted the United States in 1918, the Spanish Flu Pandemic. Death was primarily by pulmonary infection and its attendant hypoxemia and respiratory failure.”
“The first application of hyperbaric medicine to a Spanish Flu victim was likely also the first application to a human being in the United States. In 1918 Dr. Orval Cunningham of Kansas City was brought a dying friend of a fellow physician.”
“The patient was moribund and blue. Dr. Cunningham was asked to treat this dying patient. With just a one-hour treatment with compressed air at 1.68 atmospheres absolute the patient experienced improvement. Combined with additional hyperbaric treatments over the next 3 days this patient’s life was saved. Others followed.”
“Today’s Coronavirus’ mortality is due to pulmonary infection and respiratory failure . . . the primary pathology is in the lungs, the first organ of contact with hyperbaric therapy beyond the skin.”
This not only allows adequate oxygen to reach the blood and therefore the whole rest of the body but hyperbaric oxygen therapy also inhibits the inflammatory process, allowing healing from the viral infection.
“Applied correctly, hyperbaric therapy may have utility in
Coronavirus patients like its life-saving history with the
Spanish Flu.” - Paul Harch, MD, Harch Hyperbarics Inc.
HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY
Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy (HBOT) is already used internationally to heal patients in the most-at-risk COVID-19 groups (heart disease, cancer, COPD, stroke, critical care, etc). it is a lifesaving therapy even without a virus present.
Treating high-risk Coronavirus patients – those who have the Coronavirus and who suffer from an underlying issue such as pulmonary disease, pneumonia, cardiac disease, diabetes, etc – with hyperbaric oxygen therapy will save lives. HBOT adds oxygen to hypoxic tissue, reduces inflammation, strengthens the immune system to defeat the Coronavirus – all the while improving the underlying medical condition which could otherwise be fatal.
INFLAMMATION
“The anti-inflammatory effects of oxygen, especially when increased in the body by hyperbaric oxygen therapy, are well documented. We know inflammation, even inflamasomes, cannot exist unless oxygen is low.
Hyper-oxygenation is a deterrent to the Coronavirus. Also, note that the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine was "Oxygen and the Cell" where Hypoxic inducible Factor 1-alpha was recognized as the precursor of all disease and tumor growth. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy saves lives by combating inflammation and hypoxia.”
- Ray Cralle, PT
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Note that in March 2020, the World Health Organization said that “Oxygen therapy is the major treatment intervention for patients with severe COVID-19. All countries should work to optimize the availability of pulse oximeters and medical oxygen systems.”
HYPERBARIC MEDICINE INTERNATIONAL
Hyperbaric Medicine International (HMI) is a 501c4 nonprofit dedicated: 1/ to advocating hyperbaric oxygen therapy as the standard of care for a broad array of medical conditions worldwide including inflammation; and
2/ to certifying physicians, technicians and clinics to assure hyperbaric oxygen therapy is delivered under high medical standards and reaches all in need.
We encourage all healthcare practitioners consider hyperbaric oxygen therapy for high-risk Coronavirus patients.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
BARRY M MEUSE
President and Chairman of the Board
editor@hbotnews.org