Recently, a five-year-old boy burned to death in a hyperbaric chamber. He was being treated for sleep apnea and attention-deficit disorder. Needless to say, this child’s death should not have happened. It is hard to believe the number of errors by the provider that led to this tragedy. I see a lot of malpractice in my practice, but I cannot recall ever having seen so many mistakes coming together at one time. Due in large part to the sheer number of errors, four people have now been criminally charged in the death.
First some background. A hyperbaric chamber is an enclosed space, which is sealed off from the environment and into which air is pumped to increase the atmospheric pressure inside. It can be a large chamber or even a room, but most are sized for use by a single person. Sometimes what is pumped in is oxygen as opposed to room air. It was oxygen being used in the case of the boy who died.
Hyperbaric chambers are approved by the FDA as effective treatment for 13 conditions, including severe burns, wounds which do not heal and decompression sickness (the bends). The idea is that the increased pressure inside the chamber will increase the amount of oxygen in the tissues of the body and thereby accelerate healing. Sleep apnea and attention-deficit disorder are not on the FDA list of conditions for which this treatment is recognized as effective. This little boy should not have even been receiving this treatment.
High oxygen environments are dangerous. Anything which will burn in room air will burn fiercely, if provided with more oxygen. The higher the oxygen level, the faster and more intensely the fire will burn. The oxygen level in the boy’s chamber was five times that found in room air. It was almost a pure oxygen environment. Anyone working in or around a high oxygen environment must take extreme precautions to prevent a fire.
It is unclear what started the fatal fire. It could have been anything, including a static electricity discharge.
This was an accident waiting to happen. The chamber in use was old, probably past its normal service life expectancy. It had not received the required yearly inspection for an as yet undetermined period of time. It had not received its daily maintenance check. No medical doctor or safety supervisor was on site. The treatment was being administered by someone who was not licensed to provide it. And perhaps most significant of all, the child was not wearing the required grounding strap, which would have prevented a static electricity discharge.
There are many medical providers out there who are interested only in the money they can get from their patients. They perform unnecessary procedures, which offer little hope of curing whatever ails the patient. They use unlicensed personnel. They may use out-of-date equipment or drugs sourced from who-knows-where. They are charlatans and the system does not do a good job of putting them out of business. That leaves it up to you to do your homework and make sure that the medical treatments you are agreeing to undergo are likely to be effective and to be performed by a qualified person. Remember that just because a doctor says it does not make it true. As President Ronald Reagan famously said, “Trust, but verify.”
