As a center of high-tech medicine, the INTEGRIS Hyperbaric Medicine and Wound Center also believes in treating each patient as a human being. That means saving lives, limbs and quality of life.

One Patient's Story

Manny Maciel, a diabetic for several years, had already lost his left foot to the disease. In January 1998 when a wound between two toes on his right foot refused to heal, he decided he didn't want to lose his right foot, too.

That's when the 56-year-old Hitchcock resident launched himself into a series of doctor's appointments that ultimately resulted in treatment for his foot inside the hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) chamber at INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center. The result: Maciel, right foot intact, is now working, playing golf and leading an active life.

Diabetes causes many complications, including blindness, kidney disease, heart disease and stroke. Another common complication of diabetes is hard-to-heal wounds, particularly in the feet and legs. Diabetes, in fact, is the leading cause of leg and foot amputations, causing more than 65,000 a year in the United States alone.

Maciel says HBO therapy was an advantage he "desperately needed" to save his foot.

What makes it an advantage?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy allows patients to breathe 100 percent oxygen for a restricted amount of time while their bodies are placed under increased atmospheric pressure. The combination of increased pressure and oxygen results in a greatly increased supply of oxygen to the body's tissues at about six times the normal amount at which speeds healing.

The procedure is used not only to help people with diabetic wounds, but also people suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, burns, crush injuries, decompression sickness, non-healing wounds from radiation therapy and even severe infections such as necrotizing fasciitis, known in popular press as "the flesh-eating bacteria."

HBO treatments are referred to as "dives" since the increased atmospheric pressure is the same as experienced in scuba diving. Maciel made 59 dives in a period of about three months. During that period, Maciel spent a lot of time with wound care center staff at INTEGRIS Baptist.

"I have nothing but compliments for them. They were professional and knowledgeable but also accommodating and gentle. Everything they do is intended to provide the best possible care to someone as they recover," Maciel says.

The care he received made the difference.

"With this infection, I could have easily ended up having my toe removed, and if the infection had continued to spread, the rest of my foot might have been amputated, too. I did 59 dives, and it was certainly worth it. I'm down to my last foot, and the HBO therapy saved it," Maciel says.