History of HBOT

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HBOT

The first pressurized room used to treat health problems was built by an

Englishman named Henshaw in 1662; however, it was not until over a century later

in 1788, that compressed hyperbaric air was put to large scale use in a diving

bell for underwater industrial repairs of an English bridge.

The first deep sea diving suit, invented in 1819 by August Siebe, used

compressed air

supplied to the helmet for generous underwater movement. A French iron shop in

1834 built the first hyperbaric tank under the direction of Dr. Junod. A copper

sphere five feet in diameter with the appropriate viewports and compressed air

fittings became the center of attraction for many patients. He reported

wonderful recovery from a variety of debilitating conditions in the Bulletin of

the Academe of Medicine. Hyperbaric enthusiasm spread among the European

countries during the next forty years. Sick people came from America to try the

new therapy. An enterprising Canadian built the first North American hyperbari

chamber 1860.

Early French hyperbaric assisted surgery demonstrated that patients recovered

with fewer complications. This interested the European medical profession. Dr.

S. Haldane studied the effects of compressed oxygen and taught at the

University of Dundee in the early 1900's. He developed the first diving tables

for the Royal Navy. His legacy gives him the title " Father of Oxygen Therapy "

and physicians continue in his line of work to

this day.

In 1918 Dr. Orval Cunningham considered the differences between people living or

dying through the flu epidemic in the Rocky Mountains. He noticed people in the

valley fared better than people in the mountains. He reasoned that denser air in

the valley

helped people fight the infection. He had an 8' diameter by 30' long hyperbaric

chamber built next to his medical clinic. His good outcomes with patients

suffering from pneumonia encouraged him to build other chambers. He built the

world's largest functional hyperbaric chamber, a 64' steel sphere " hyperbaric

medical hotel " with five floors of living space. The Great Depression in the

1930's ended his project and the giant chamber was scrapped for

the war effort in the 1940's.

Harvard Medical School had a hyperbaric chamber built in 1928. It provided a

tool for years of research. Public interest for HBO2 started to grow in the

1960's after publicity about its use on President Kennedy's sickly infant. In

the last three decades great strides in HBO2 research has raised the value of

this unique therapy. University studies have expanded the list of conditions

usefully treated with compressed oxygen. Doctors used to ask, " Can it work? " Now

they ask, " How much is needed to completely work? "

Rapid Recovery Hyperbarics

Health Enhancement Center

http://www.hbot4u.com