Don’t Underestimate the Power of the Parent
By Claudine Lanoix
The positive power of the use of hyperbaric oxygenation is really a modification of God’s gift to man– oxygen the basis of life. —-Richard A. Neubauer, M.D.
Often in life we are provided with the opportunity to positively influence others while helping ourselves. I believe that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the key to a brighter future and improved quality of life for many brain injured children. I share this belief with parents everywhere. —-Claudine Lanoix (Nadeau) mother of five including twins with CP
Parents and Caregivers who are faced with the formidable prospect of caring for a child stricken with cerebral palsy or a brain injury often find themselves at a lack for resources when considering treatment options and determining the most effective course of action.
Our centre was formed to provide parents and caregivers with a single location from which they could find support, counsel and therapeutic options from which they could select the option that
could most effectively treat the condition of their child or family member. Often the parent of a child is overwhelmed by the situation. In my particular situation, a diagnosis was withheld from
me for eighteen months because the physician did not feel I had the capability to deal with the situation of having twins with cerebral palsy, the youngest of my five children. It was this defining moment that caused me to redefine goals for my life.
When you as a parent of a child with a neurological injury feel as though you are overwhelmed, you have but to reach out. You are not alone. You have a variety of options available to you.
There is little doubt as to benefits seen through the therapeutic use of oxygen. Yet in the search for information and in the evaluation of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for family members with
neurological injuries, it is interesting to note that some clinicians will go to extraordinary lengths to discourage the use of HBOT. This, despite Holbach et al. in 1977 noted in a scientific evaluation of the use of hyperbaric oxygen at 1.5 ATA or 1.5 times the normal atmospheric pressure that there were no adverse effects seen in the use of hyperbaric oxygen at this pressure. Why, you might you ask yourself do physicians not have an appreciation of the benefits of the use of hyperbaric oxygen. The answer lies in the profit motive. Oxygen cannot be patented therefore there is no drug company promoting its use. Given the recent events in which drugs have been brought to market and approved for use only to have their adverse effects suppressed until a healthy profit can be made. This healthy profit is used to provide benefits to those who regulate its use.
STUDIES CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF HYPERBARIC OXYGEN ON NEUROLOGICAL INJURIES FROM INDEPENDENT RESEARCH INITIATIVES IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, CUBA, AND INDIA PROVIDE REPRODUCIBLE RESULTS THAT SHOW STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES
• Improvements in Gross Motor function
• Improvements in Fine Motor function
• Decreased Spasticity
• Increased cognition
• Decreased custodial care time.
IS THIS A CURE? – NO.
DOES IT PROVIDE POSITIVE CHANGES IN QUALITY OF LIFE – In most cases, yes.
In searching for therapeutic options for my twins, I was amazed at how many times I found the term entrepreneurial in reference to HBOT. My experience has been that this is usually used by a
clinician who:
1. has not seen results of the use of HBOT in the treatment of neurological injuries and,
2. does live with the challenges of having a family member with a neurological injury and,
3. does not realize the impact of the blessings that small seemingly insignificant changes in
quality of life can mean to the family.
During the time since I first traveled to England (in 1997) to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy for my children. We have seen hundreds of children in the past few years benefit from the use
of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
How much more evidence will it take? The answer is before us – Oxygen is the essence of Life.