Special Report – Veterans and HBOT
The unfortunate truth is that countless veterans, just like Simon, repeatedly battle suicidal thoughts. They struggle from their battle wounds and PTSD with each passing minute.
These brave souls protected our country, and it’s beyond time that we protect their future. Thankfully there is hope in HBOT.
Watch the 30 Minute Special Report
Veterans are at especially high risk for suicide due to the injuries they’ve endured and the horrific images they’ve seen. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) rank high among the reasons why veterans are choosing death over living. But there is hope for new beginnings. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is helping war veterans turn their lives around.
In this Special Report, Edward diGirolamo, host of the HBOT News Network, dives into HBOT and what the state of North Carolina is doing to help get veterans this life saving therapy. We hear from Melissa Spain, CEO of the Community Foundation of NC East, as she discusses their involvement to get NC Senate Bill 442 passed; a bill that has appropriated funds to provide HBOT to NC veterans who suffer from TBI and PTSD.
We are also greeted by Elena Schertz, Nurse Practitioner at Extivita-RTP in Durham, NC. Elena gives us a tour of their state-of-the-art clinic where soldiers are receiving HBOT. One of their veteran patients, Simon LeMay, agreed to share his story with us to help spread the hope that exists within the world of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Meet a true American Hero, Simon LeMay, retired Sergeant Major with 25-years in the US Marine Corps. LeMay was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan five times during a ten year period. He lost his best friend in battle and witnessed horrific incidents of violence and injury among his Marine bothers. Although LeMay was blessed to avoid serious physical injury to himself, he did come home with an invisible wound of war.
IED exposures left him with a TBI and visions of war and death haunted him with PTSD. Simon turned to alcohol and pain pills to ease the emotional and physical pain, leading him down a dark tunnel of depression and suicidal thoughts that almost ended in demise.
After hearing about it from friends, his loving family talked him into trying hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help heal his brain injuries. LeMay received treatment at Extivita- RTP in Durham, NC and states after 20-30 treatments he started realizing that he was once again “starting to feel emotion,” with the sense of worthlessness disappearing and the suicidal ideation being no more.
“I started looking forward to the next day,” Simon exclaims.
Also included in this Special Report is a raw and personal interview with Cate, Simon’s wife. Today she is thrilled with Simon’s progress, even calling hyperbaric oxygen therapy “God sent.”
Guest
Organizations
For more information about the guest organizations featured in this special, please click on the links.
North Carolina Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Clinic
Extivita RTP
NC HBOT for Veterans Program
The Community Foundation of NC East
Subscribe Now, It’s Free!
Recent HBOT News
HOPON (Hyperbaric Oxygen for the Prevention of Osteoradionecrosis): a randomised controlled trial of hyperbaric oxygen to prevent osteoradionecrosis of the irradiated mandible: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
Abstract: Osteoradionecrosis of the mandible is the most common serious complication of radiotherapy for head and neck malignancy. For decades, hyperbaric oxygen has been employed in efforts to prevent those cases of osteoradionecrosis that are precipitated by dental...
Clinical Trial – Dexmedetomidine and Laparoscopic Surgery
Conventionally General anaesthesia remains the choice for the majority of open abdominal
surgical procedures, and regional anaesthesia is preferred only for patients who are at high
risk under general anaesthesia . The main reason for selecting spinal anaesthesia as the
first choice for laparoscopic cases was its advantages over general anaesthesia which include
uniform total muscle relaxation, a conscious patient, economical, relatively uneventful
recovery, pain free early postoperative period and the protection from potential
complications of general anaesthesia. The main debatable point, however, seems to be the
status of respiratory parameters among the two modes of anaesthesia during laparoscopic
surgery. In this context it can be stated that spontaneous physiological respiration during
spinal anaesthesia would always be better than an assisted respiration as in general
anaesthesia.
The pneumo-peritoneum induced rise in intra-abdominal pressure including pressure on the
diaphragm and carbon dioxide induced peritoneal irritation are the factors to be considered
Use of a Tilting Orthopedic Fracture Table to Facilitate Proper Patient Positioning During Intrathecal Neurolysis With Hyperbaric Phenol: A Case Report.
Abstract: We describe the case of a 41-year-old woman with metastatic cervical cancer and a large mass eroding into the pelvis and left lumbosacral plexus. The patient had intractable left lower extremity pain refractory to standard therapies, and she elected to...