“In a famous experiment in 1960 published in the first edition of the Journal of
Cardiovascular
Surgery Dr. Boerema of the Netherlands anesthetized pigs, removed nearly all of
their blood, and replaced it with salt water while he compressed them to three atmospheres in a hyperbaric chamber.
"At 3 ATA the pigs, with essentially no blood, were completely alive and well," he wrote. Dr. Boerema then removed the saline, replaced the blood, and brought the pigs to surface pressure where they remained alive and well. This phenomenon has been proven effective in other experiments and is the basis for clinical use in extreme blood loss anemia.
"The best examples are Jehovah’s Witness patients who have lost massive amounts of blood and because of religious proscription are unable to receive blood transfusions," says Dr. Paul Harch. "These patients are kept alive over weeks with repetitive Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy until their blood system is able to naturally produce enough blood to sustain life.”
"At 3 ATA the pigs, with essentially no blood, were completely alive and well," he wrote. Dr. Boerema then removed the saline, replaced the blood, and brought the pigs to surface pressure where they remained alive and well. This phenomenon has been proven effective in other experiments and is the basis for clinical use in extreme blood loss anemia.
"The best examples are Jehovah’s Witness patients who have lost massive amounts of blood and because of religious proscription are unable to receive blood transfusions," says Dr. Paul Harch. "These patients are kept alive over weeks with repetitive Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy until their blood system is able to naturally produce enough blood to sustain life.”
Hyperbaric therapy may not be the first thing that comes to mind if you've suffered significant blood loss. But it is a viable therapy that might keep you alive without a blood transfusion.
If your doctor is claiming that due to blood loss nothing but a blood transfusion will save your life, ask him/her if the facility has a hyperbaric chamber, or if they know where the nearest one is. Not every medical facility has one, but they've been around for decades. Divers use them after long dives to safely decompress their blood, so if you're near the ocean there is likely one nearby.
There is a U.S. list of hyperbaric facilities here. Or just Google "HBOT near me".
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Bill K. Underwood is a columnist and author of several books. You can support this page by following this link to his books at Amazon.com.
