If Pressure Vessels Could Talk 

Carbon monoxide poisoning is the most typical form of poisoning. Between 1981 and 1983, 119 cases were treated at the Edgewater Hyperbaric Facility. Our data showed that the most seriously poisoned unconscious victims had the best chance of recovery (70%) when treatment in the hyperbaric chamber was initiated within 2 hours. 

Once, a service station attendant fell asleep inside his car in the garage with the motor running to stay warm after consuming a few beers the previous evening. He and his labrador retriever were both found unconscious the following morning by paramedics and transported by ambulance from a mile away to our facility. Treatment was started upon arrival with 100% oxygen by inhalation at 3 atmospheres pressure in the hyperbaric chamber. We treated the dog in the chamber’s separate outer lock. 

Both regained consciousness during the 2-hour treatment, and both were discharged afterward. My patient left without a hangover, but his dog, who hadn’t been drinking, walked out with a severe Parkinsonian gait from the poisoning. Ten years later, I ran into my patient and his wife while visiting a relative in the hospital. I discovered that his dog had died six months later, and my patient counted his blessings for leaving his brain and marriage intact. 

I speculated that alcohol had pickled his white blood cells, which helped to prevent the secondary reperfusion injury and the hyperbaric oxygen. 

The French Columnist