For old wounds, a breath of fresh air

Spring Hill Regional adds hyperbaric chambers to heal chronic injuries effortlessly.

By CHANDRA BROADWATER, Times Staff Writer
Published September 1, 2007

George Tweedy, 72, clutches his water bottle while registered nurses Kathleen Hertig, left, and Mary Plummer, clinic manager, push him into a hyperbaric chamber for a treatment. Tweedy, who was the clinic's first patient, is receiving treatment for burns he received from radiation treatment.
	[Keri Wiginton | Times]

SPRING HILL - George Tweedy might as well be at home in bed watching TV.

Instead, the 72-year-old from Spring Hill lies just as comfortably in a clear, pressurized tube while breathing pure oxygen. As his skin also absorbs the gas, Tweedy's oxygen-rich blood will help heal damaged tissue left behind from radiation he received two years ago to treat prostate cancer.

All this will happen while he lies on a comfy mattress and watches a wall-mounted TV tuned to a morning talk show outside the hyperbaric chamber.

"Knowing this was coming to Spring Hill was like a dream come true," he said. "I thought I was going to have to go clear down to Tampa for this daily treatment. Now, it's five minutes from my house."

Tweedy was the first patient treated at Spring Hill Regional Hospital's new Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center. Located at the hospital's medicine mall, next to the main building off County Line Road, Hernando County's first such center opened this week.

A room for the treatment chambers, four exam rooms, a waiting room and offices make up the new $500,000 space. Spring Hill Regional is owned by Health Management Associates of Naples.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is generally used to heal wounds that have persisted for 30 days or more. At Spring Hill Regional, a patient is placed in one of two hyperbaric chambers, which is then filled with pure oxygen at two or two and a half times atmospheric pressure.

Treatments usually last about two hours and go for several weeks, depending on the type of injury.

Major causes of such wounds are diabetes, circulatory problems, pressure and infection. Or they may be from treatments like radiation, which can have uncomfortable side effects like Tweedy's.

The average age of someone with a chronic wound is 65; the wounds persist for about six months.

Hyperbaric chambers also come in handy for underwater divers, including Weeki Wachee Springs mermaids who need to be decompressed. In 1990, a Brooksville woman training to be a mermaid at the attraction was rushed to Gainesville's Shands Hospital, where the nearest hyperbaric chamber was. An air embolism formed in the 21-year-old's blood when she didn't exhale compressed air from the breathing tubes mermaids use to perform underwater.

Spring Hill wound center director Ron Beach helped to launch an oxygen therapy program in Pasco County in 1994. Since then, he said, physicians and patients have recognized the treatment as an important way to help complex wounds heal. Now most insurance companies, including Medicare, approve coverage.

"It's not unusual for a wound center like ours to have healing outcomes of 95 percent," Beach said. "The most common reason people don't heal is noncompliance - they don't do what the doctor asked them to do."

In preparation for the program at Spring Hill, a team of nurses and doctors traveled to San Antonio, Texas, for training at the International ATMO hyperbaric therapy services program.

"It's a world-renowned training site and offers a very intense, comprehensive program," Beach said. "We're pleased to offer this service, knowing we're going to make a difference in patients' lives."

At Spring Hill Regional, patients slide into a clear, acrylic tube and are then locked in for treatment. A nurse stays during the pressurizing and depressurizing process, and the two can communicate through a handset.

Strict rules to protect patients from fire call for them to wear all-cotton hospital gowns. And they can't wear any jewelry, lotion or hair products or bring cell phones with them.

But a patient can bring a DVD to watch while undergoing therapy.

Tweedy said he's content with watching TV. He looks forward to being pain-free, and most of all, sleeping soundly through the night. Since his cancer treatment, he wakes up several times, he said.

"It's heck not to get more than a few hours of sleep," he said. "Any relief I can get from this is going to be good."

Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.

Fast facts

To learn more

For further information, go towww.springhillregionalhospital.org or call the Spring Hill Regional Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center at 684-1340.

[Last modified August 31, 2007, 20:42:29]