Re: oxygen as universal antidote

[Guest guest]

Hi Marguerite,

Yes, I have some great information - including SPECT images before and after

injury and another set of SPECTS after 40 hyperbaric treatments. Will this help

you?

Lane

Marguerite <mmmckinney1@...> wrote:

Does anyone have any statistics on the success rate of treating closed head

injury-TBI, at almost 2 years since the injury. My son's neurologist wants some

numbers on this before he will write a script for it...he doesn't want us to

waste our money in his words. In the same breath, he said if he was a parent he

definately would do it. My son is almost 25 yrs old and had his brain injury

May 2004. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Marguerite

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

Marguerite,

First of all, it's YOUR money. He should let you " waste " it at your own

discretion. It isn't hurting his pocketbook to write the prescription.

Second, you might want to check the group " brain injured child " and

see if someone there has some anecdotal evidence for you.

My son is 6 and is improved DRAMATICALLY from HBOT. His injury was from a

true knot in the umbilical cord.

On 3/20/06, Marguerite <mmmckinney1@...> wrote:

>

> Does anyone have any statistics on the success rate of treating closed

> head injury-TBI, at almost 2 years since the injury. My son's neurologist

> wants some numbers on this before he will write a script for it...he doesn't

> want us to waste our money in his words. In the same breath, he said if he

> was a parent he definately would do it. My son is almost 25 yrs old and had

> his brain injury May 2004. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

>

> Thanks

> Marguerite

>

>

> ________________________________________________________________________

> Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!

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>

>

[Guest guest]

Dear Marguerite,

I am the director of the Hyperbaric Medicine Center in Honolulu - a facility

which sees more than 60 patients a week, and am Vice Chair of the State

Neurotrauma Commission. We treat many TBI and stroke patients who achieve

excellent recoveries.

I understand, though, the doctor's concern - we hear some version of that every

day. What I can tell you is this: All of our TBI patients recover some.

Some of our patients recover completely. Most are somewhere in between. Our

younger (less than 50 years old) patients do especially well even years after

the initial injury. And if they do not smoke and are not diabetic or

hypertensive, they tend to recover much faster and more completely than those

who do/are.

We have found, however, that the best way to objectively determine how much

recovery we can expect, and how many treatments it will take, is to do a SPECT

scan and have an expert read it. My expert of choice is Dr. Uszler

(www.drspectscan.com) at UCLA. I have our local hospital do the scan, and then

send the raw data to Dr. Uszler. He gives me great color illustrations and a

very detailed report. Lastly, he gives me his expert opinion as to whether

hyperbaric will help or not and if so, how much. He is a straight shooter, and

tells me when not to treat, so I respect him for that. Most importantly, the

SPECT scans are covered 100% by health insurance here in Hawaii for brain

injured patients. This means the patient's family can get an expert opinion

without spending anything out of pocket. Dr. Uszler has also been wonderful

about making protocol recommendations based upon the individual patient's scan

results - that is, what pressure, how long in the chamber, and how many sessions

over all.

You might consider asking your doc to order a SPECT scan first. Most big

hospitals that do MRI and CT scans also have SPECT scanners. The hospital's

Nuclear Medicine Dept. will also be able to tell you if your health insurance

will cover the cost or not. Be sure to check - scans can be expensive. If you

decide to go ahead with it, you should contact Dr. Uszler ahead of time so he

can give the hospital specific instructions on how he likes the scans to be done

so the scan data is complete. It is not absolutely essential to put him in

touch with the hospital, but it could save a lot of time.

Lastly, once you have a baseline scan, if you then go ahead and do hyperbaric,

consider having another scan done down the line for comparison. Seeing those

two scans - the before and after - is the best possible proof to offer your doc

or anyone. I have also used them to get insurance to pay for hyperbaric - not

always, but it is much easier to get them to pay with before and after scans

than without.

Hyperbaric is definitely not a " universal antidote. " Wouldn't it be great if it

were that easy? But we see many, many young patients with head injuries here

in Hawaii - particularly our surfers and divers - and no amount of PT, cog

rehab, or speech therapy has done as much for our patients as HBOT.

With kindest regards and aloha,

Dr. ellen Markley

www.hyperbaricmedicinecenter.com

[ ] oxygen as " universal antidote "

Does anyone have any statistics on the success rate of treating closed head

injury-TBI, at almost 2 years since the injury. My son's neurologist wants some

numbers on this before he will write a script for it...he doesn't want us to

waste our money in his words. In the same breath, he said if he was a parent he

definately would do it. My son is almost 25 yrs old and had his brain injury

May 2004. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Marguerite

________________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

Dear Marguerite,

We just recently treated a seventeen year old male with TBI. After the

course of 40 treatments of HBOT, his short term memory improved, his balance

in walking improved (he ran on the last day), his cognition concerning who

he was prior to the accident improved (this was a mixed blessing) and his

speech became clearer and louder.

If insurance would cover this, his family would have him treated again, but

funding is limited.

Judith Burkholder

>From: " Donna Bateman " <donna.bateman@...>

>Reply-medicaid

>medicaid

>Subject: Re: [ ] oxygen as " universal antidote "

>Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 20:06:36 -0600

>

>Marguerite,

>First of all, it's YOUR money. He should let you " waste " it at your own

>discretion. It isn't hurting his pocketbook to write the prescription.

>

>Second, you might want to check the group " brain injured child " and

>see if someone there has some anecdotal evidence for you.

>

>My son is 6 and is improved DRAMATICALLY from HBOT. His injury was from a

>true knot in the umbilical cord.

>

>

>On 3/20/06, Marguerite <mmmckinney1@...> wrote:

> >

> > Does anyone have any statistics on the success rate of treating closed

> > head injury-TBI, at almost 2 years since the injury. My son's

>neurologist

> > wants some numbers on this before he will write a script for it...he

>doesn't

> > want us to waste our money in his words. In the same breath, he said if

>he

> > was a parent he definately would do it. My son is almost 25 yrs old and

>had

> > his brain injury May 2004. Any information would be greatly

>appreciated.

> >

> > Thanks

> > Marguerite

> >

> >

> > ________________________________________________________________________

> > Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!

> > Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage.

> > Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Lane, what ever you can share with me would be greatly appreciated. My phone is

706-596-4110(work) M-F 7-4 or 706-324-1909(home) fax is 706-596-4112, email is

mmmckinney1@....

Thanks so much,

Marguerite

________________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

Donna, thank you so much for the " brain injured child " group. This is all

new to me and I am not sure where to turn for the help/information we need.

Marguerite

________________________________________________________________________

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[Guest guest]

He was one year post incident.

>From: " Marguerite " <mmmckinney1@...>

>Reply-medicaid

>medicaid

>Subject: [ ] oxygen as " universal antidote "

>Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:20:41 GMT

>

>Judith, how far out from the 17 yr old's brain injury were his HBOT

>treatments? That is wonderful he improved so much! These are some of the

>same things we hope to improve for Shane...short term

>memory,balance,cognition, speech!

>

>

>Marguerite

>

>

>________________________________________________________________________

>Try Juno Platinum for Free! Then, only $9.95/month!

>Unlimited Internet Access with 1GB of Email Storage.

>Visit http://www.juno.com/value to sign up today!

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Dr. Harch is the expert.