Scuba diving can sometimes expose you to dangers including unseen internal injury if your body is unable to adjust to increasing and decreasing water pressure as you breathe compressed air.
Decompression sickness, also called ‘the bends’, is caused by the formation of bubbles of gas that occur with changes in water pressure during scuba diving. The main treatment for decompression sickness is spending time inside a hyperbaric chamber.
Barbadian diver, 46-year-old David Goddard, sought treatment at the Roxborough Hospital for the bends he was experiencing.
“I had an accident on December 5th scuba diving and had trouble walking and using my legs directly after that. Gradually, I started to recover and after eight weeks came here for treatment,” he said.
Goddard said some of the symptoms he experienced included tingling nerves, numbness, and initial trouble walking. His treatment comprised four 5-hour sessions as part of his recovery process.
Goddard had a landmark experience according to Manager of the Hyperbaric Facility Ray Hinds.
“It’s groundbreaking because there’s no documented evidence of a patient or patients being treated after nine weeks of a neurological bend,” Hinds said.
He said that the Hospital currently treats up to three patients a day with one individual receiving treatment at a time.
“The treatment here was fantastic. I got in touch with Mr. Ray Hinds following a search for a hyperbaric chamber treatment in the Caribbean and found Tobago, and came here based on his recommendation. The team here, the nurses, everybody treated me amazing,” Goddard said.
Other applications for the hyperbaric treatment include treating amputees and burn victims.