Brain, Stroke Rehab'

Can HBOT help in the rehabilitation of traumatic head injury? YES

Since 1993, the Most Experienced Hyperbaric Centers with the Most Experienced Physicians.

Note to patients: The chambers we use are the most technically advanced in the World and surround the patient with 100% medical oxygen within 90-seconds of door seal without masks or hoods. No other ASME-PVHO-1 chamber can match this performance or efficiency. You can rely on our expert technicians to control your environment and you can relax in comfort with concert quality sound and entertainment.

Note to referring Primary Care Physicians: Our Centers act as a dispensary for your prescription of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Our Center's Medical Director's role is to assist you or your patient to overcome problems that may be vexing and temporary but helped by HBOT. Our Center's goal is to keep your patient in your care as their Primary Physician.

Call toll-free 1-888-691-1482 for a no obligation appointment to tour the nearest center to you. Meet our qualified staff, or make an appointment with our medical director. Then compare our treatment charges with other centers.

Special discounts apply through the month of July - 2010 - YOUR FIRST TREATMENT IS FREE *

* All HBOT Tx., including your complimentary first Tx. must have a physician's Rx.

For unbiased and comprehensive information from another independent site

Questions . . . info@ hboinfo.com Responses within 24 hours

Our specialist physicians do diagnose and treat illness and injuries. . . or you can attend one of our Centers under the direction of your personal physician!

“Understand the diagnosis and defy the Prognosis.”
“The discovery that the mind can change the brain, momentous as it is for such practical matters as helping stroke patients, is only the beginning. Finally, after a generation in which biological materialism has had neuroscience in a chokehold, we may at last be breaking free.” – The Mind & The Brain – Neuroplasticity and the power of Mental Force. The author, Jefferey M. Schwartz, M.D. is a research professor of psychiatry at UCLA School of Medicine .

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a non invasive and painless treatment that makes you heal faster.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (“HBOT”) will:
∙ increase range of motion,
∙ increase oxygen delivery to injured tissue, including brain and spine,
∙ result in rapid reactions to other rehabilitation strategies, such as speech and physiotherapists.

HBOT is available in hospitals. However, hospitals usually will not treat illnesses such as stroke in their chambers. We provide hospital standard treatments at an affordable price. We incorporate the latest research and modern technology to cross frontiers in treating traumatic brain injury and cerebrovascular accidents such as stroke and heat attacks. The atmosphere in our clinic is relaxed and comfortable, designed to assist and enhance recovery.

The following case illustrates the complexity and time required for rehabilitation. It echoes the points made in the red-letter critical point box at the bottom of this page.

    Stephan (“Steve”) K’ was a fit 53 years old who worked in the construction industry. He did not fit any risk category for heart attacks when he had one. On April 23, 2004, Steve was driving with his daughter Jackie. He stopped at the curb and opened his pickup’s door and fell to the ground, apparently dead with no heartbeat and no breathing. Jackie raced to her father’s body and commenced CPR. Steve’s heart started to beat and ragged breathing commenced.

    Steve was rushed to Emergency by an ambulance and placed on full life support. His wife Kathy arrived and was told by the Hospital’s staff that there was little or no hope for Steve and that she should give them permission to take him off life support so “Steve can give life to others” as an organ donor.

    Kathy, a devout Catholic, refused to let go of her husband of 33 years. Despite the fact that Steve had once made the remark “if ever I am on life support, pull the plug on me,” she later recalled thinking that it was God that would make that decision, not her. Kathy and her adult children prayed as though Steve’s life depended on God, and worked as though his life depended on them.

Steve had stabilized enough to be transferred to a skilled nursing facility. Thirty-eight days after his heart attack, and against the protests of the nursing staff, Kathy bundled the comatose Steve into a van and brought him for his first Hyperbaric oxygen treatment to Hyperbaric of San Diego’s Clinic. Over the next six weeks Steve came to the Clinic every second day for a 90 minute session in the chamber. On his sixth treatment, the Clinic staff noted that Steve seemed to be responding to voices. The challenge for Kathy each day was to prod a skeptical nursing staff at the convalescence home into getting Steve prepared for travel. “They continued to insist that there was no hope and that all life support efforts be curtailed so he could be an organ donor. It was extremely stressful on me to have such a gloomy prognosis repeated and in front of Steve also,” Kathy commented later.

Steve was considered to be “brain dead” by his neurologists. Regular rehabilitation therapies (speech and physical) were denied by his insurance company. Kathy, a schoolteacher, moved Steve out of the skilled nursing facility back into his home. She purchased a disabled van and hired a caretaker for the hours that she was away from home. Steve now had problems holding himself erect in his wheel chair and needed to be held in an upright position with tie-downs. Kathy wheeled Steve into the hyperbaric clinic each Saturday and Sunday.

One of the first indications that Steve’s brain was functional was when he was offered a taste of beer. Under the watchful gaze of an attending physician at the hyperbaric clinic, Steve opened his eyes and indicated “yes” to the question “would you like a beer, Steve?” Just a sip of the remembered flavor stimulated Steve’s gag reflex and he commenced spending more time with his eyes open and trying to talk. The tracheotomy was no longer needed and removed. The stoma closed over rapidly. On each of his weekly visits to the Clinic, the staff noted continual progress. By this time Steve had completely reversed himself on his pre-stroke comment about “pulling the plug” if he ever became so gravely ill. When he was still unable to sit up, a relative leaned over him and asked “Do you want to be allowed to die?” to which Steve grimaced and whispered “Noooo.”

Fifteen months after his heart attack, Kathy and Steve visited his original neurologist. By this time, Steve was now fully responsive, remembered the doctors name and said “Hullo, Doctor” when he was wheeled into the office. The specialist physician was both amazed and pleased. “It is now obvious that Steve had a stroke rather than a myocardial infarct. He is a man in a barrel. ” The neurologist then agreed to full stroke rehabilitation for Steve at the insurance company’s cost. “It could be up to five years before he is able to walk,” the neurologist cautioned Kathy.

Steve continues to progress. Steve has a lively interest in life and a wry sense of humor. He enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and they love him.

One of Steve’s sons, Jonathan, toasted his sister Jackie at her recent wedding, 4th of July weekend, 2005.

“My sister is the third strongest woman that I know, after my grandmother and mother. Without her efforts to resuscitate Dad, he would not be here today. My Dad had often told me that you should never go to bed at night without telling your family that you love them”

This was in response to Steve holding the microphone and toasting his daughter and saying "I love you."

Steve’s determined and stoic wife Kathy is one of the Clinic’s heros. Families and friends, wives like Katy, the parents and care-givers are Heroes in our eyes. We encourage you to click here to visit just some of the Heroic care givers that have graced our Clinic. Look for Kathy and Steve on Thanksgiving at the Clinic.

When asked to write a brief commentary of Steve's rehabilitation and the time it takes, Kathy wrote:

It is amazing how quickly life can change. One minute you are a living, active, happy person and the next you are frozen in your mind and body dependant on everyone for everything. Unfortunately things cannot be reversed as quickly. It is a slow, painstaking process with each little milestone celebrated.

Steve was given a 2% chance of survival and a 10% chance of recovery. The family was advised there was little hope – we did not give up. A friend found out about hyperbaric oxygen treatments. Another friend told us he met a former colleague that worked for San Diego Hyperbarics. After interviews, x-rays and scant encouragement from our HMO I brought Steve to the facilities. The first sign of the help it offered was the healing of his bedsore (that appeared on him less than ten days after being admitted to the convalescent home!) that closed, never to return again.

I faithfully bring Steve to his hyperbaric oxygen treatments each weekend and see him change from a comatose being to a man that slowly whispers “I love you. ”

Kathy Kakacek

July 2005

Can HBOT help in the rehabilitation of traumatic head injury? YES

The saga of Scott Everland, injured in a high school football game. Scott is being treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy at our San Diego Center with a grant from Gracie's Hope

PROGRESS REPORT --September 16, 2009. Scotty is now making the news again. Featured on the front page of the sporting section of the San Diego Tribune and in this weeks television report.

Courage, endurance, determination and love can banish the bleakest prognosis . . .

We work closely with medical specialists and physicians. We seamlessly integrate their treatments with high dosage oxygen (“HBOT”) which acts as a cellular-energy catapult, assisting the wounded or sick body to recover.

Email us for more rehabilitation information, click here If you prefer, call us on our TOLL FREE number -- 1 (888) 691 1482 -- for answers to your questions.

Our Clinic’s goal is to participate with our patient's survival, recovery and return of their life’s quality.

Our Hyperbaric Clinic uses the most modern chambers. We can accommodate acute care patients easily.

Since the chambers are energized with medical grade oxygen, no hoods or masks are used. Our space-age “zero” gravity chair is ideal for large or tiny people. Patients can choose to be seated, recline or lie down during their therapy, enjoying freedom of movement. High quality entertainment (flat-screen TV, music and the latest videos makes each session a happy and uplifting experience.
More than 80,000 patient treatments have been completed at our Centers in the last fourteen years. Our patient satisfaction is amongst the highest in the nation.

Under State and Federal Law your doctor can prescribe HBOT at our clinic as an adjunctive therapy to your treatment program.

Conditions of Use and Disclaimer -- click here

San Diego Hyperbaric Clinic for Oxygen and wound-

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is routinely used internationally as an ADJUNCTIVE TREATMENT or COMPLIMENTARY ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL (CAM) medical response to the following ailments and trauma:. Lymes Disease, Complimentary alternative medicine, Chronic illness, stroke, autism, pain, chronic pain, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy may help cure , control or stabilize problems associated with . . . Stroke, Crush Injury, Macular Degeneration Vascular Dementia, Autism, Thermal Burns, Laser Skin Resurfacing, Chronic Fatigue, Surgical Trauma, Swelling, Inflammation, Edema, Vascular Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Fast Plastic Surgery Healing, Silicon Poisoning, Severe Anemia, Bone Disease, Healing Bones, Osteoporosis, Migraines, Epilepsy, Pediatric Seizure Disorders, Gulf War Syndrome, Lyme Disease, Diabetic Wounds, Diabetic Maintenance, Infectious Disease, Complimentary Alternative Medicine, Rapid Sports Healing, Toxic Mold Infections, Head Injuries, Spinal Injuries, Breast Surgery, Tummy Tuck Surgery, Chronic Ill Health, Chemical Sensitivity, Smoke Inhalation, Delayed Smoke Poisoning, Chronic Back Pain, Chronic joint inflammation, Off-Label Use of Hyperbaric Oxygen by Physicians, Renauds, Disease, Near Drowning, Asphyxia, Heavy Metal Poisoning, Industrial Poisoning, Cerebral Edema, non-specific lung problems, Obstructive Jaundice, Liver Disease, Heart Problems, Facial Actinomycosis, General Surgey Infections, Problem Wounds, Malignant Neoplasms, Sking Grafta Spinal Cord Neuropathy, Management of Problems of Aging, Bells Palsy, Post-Operative Brain Tumor, Myelitis, Post-Operative Cosmetic Surgery, Acoustic Deafness, Optic Atrophy Periodontal Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Chron’s Disease, Shingles, Hepatic Problems. Rheumatoid Arthritis, Cerebral Palsy, Shingles, Peptic Ulcer.

This page was last updated on 10/11/11.

Hit Counter

Conditions of Use and Disclaimer -- click here