Portland has only multi-chamber hyperbaric oxygen therapy facility in the state

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) - It is Hyperbaric Awareness month and Legacy Emanuel Medical Center is the only multi-chamber hyperbaric oxygen therapy facility in the state, treating up to 12 people at a time.

Hyperbaric treatment uses oxygen set at a high-pressure level as medicine and can treat various illnesses like infections and burns.

“Instead of thinking of aspirin, or Tylenol or penicillin. You should think of oxygen as the drug that we’re delivering. But you can’t take a pill of oxygen, you have to breathe it in,” says Dr. Enoch Huang, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.

It can also help cancer patients who’ve had radiation therapy, treat carbon monoxide poisoning or more intense wounds from traumatic injuries. In some cases, medical professionals may have to separate tissue from one place and move it to another.

“Sometimes that tissue has a lack of blood flow, and when you have no blood, then you have no oxygen and the wounds don’t heal,” says Dr. Huang.

Jason Lang is a diabetic with neuropathy on his feet; meaning he can’t feel them. It progressed into a foot ulcer. The ulcer got infected, and the infection got to the bone. One option was amputation and the other, hyperbaric oxygen to keep the tissue alive.

After three months of treatment, Jason is about 90% healed and he says this treatment was the lottery ticket to his life.

“I’ve been in tears in this room,” says Lang. “The only way I can express my gratitude to everybody is by healing.”

Now, he’s making different choices for the better. Like what he eats, how much insulin to take and checking his blood sugar, so that he can have a healthy future with his family.

“I have my grandkids I’m just old enough to have a couple of them a couple of those. I’m getting to be there with them and helping them,” says Lang. “I’ve got four daughters I’m gonna get to walk for daughters at some point or another and I’ve got 2 feet to do that.”

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