A new treatment in the city is allowing patients to heal quicker and saving them lengthy trips to southern Ontario.<\/p>\n
Modern Medical Hyperbaric Medicine Clinic has been serving patients since September, but it officially held its grand opening on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a dream come true,\u201d said Dr. Meaghan Labine, chief executive officer and medical director of Modern Medical. \u201cI saw the potential of this therapy for Northwestern Ontario 10 years ago and now it\u2019s finally come true and I\u2019m very proud to be offering this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a medical treatment where patients breathe 100 per cent oxygen inside a specialized chamber pressurized to three times normal atmospheric levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat combination of pressure and oxygen super hyper-oxygenates the body, so you get the plasma, the lymphatic fluid, as well as the cerebral spinal fluid that is hyper-saturated with oxygen and that triggers the body\u2019s natural healing ability, so the body starts healing about 10 to 20 times faster than the original rate,\u201d Labine said.<\/p>\n
Hyperbaric therapy helps grow new blood cells, triggers new cell formation such as new collagen formation, and triggers stem cell production.<\/p>\n
The therapy is used to treat non-healing wounds that can often be found in people with diabetes or those who experience delayed radiation injuries during cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
Treatment takes between two to three months of two-hour sessions five days a week. According to Labine, the clinic is already treating approximately 40 patients per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hugely rewarding in your profession to be able to offer treatment that has huge benefits,\u201d Labine added. \u201cThe healing is tangible, you see it day-to-day in your patients. But it\u2019s also something that has very minimal side effects and has global impacts on the body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bringing this treatment to Thunder Bay was a long and difficult journey, but Labine said even the challenges have been worth it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was difficult, but difficulty breeds resiliency,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it was important to go through that and the clinic is stronger as a consequence. But it also taught me a lot more about the practice of hyperbaric medicine itself, what it takes to offer it, and why it\u2019s important for the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is the first hyperbaric oxygen therapy clinic in Northwestern Ontario and it is filling a gap in care. Patients are no longer required to travel to Southern Ontario for the treatment where they may be required to stay for months at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is hugely important for them because now they can get advanced healing therapies closer to home and we are looking at introducing new advance modalities that compliment hyperbaric medicine so they don\u2019t have to travel but also, we can become a leader in Northwestern Ontario of practices that they don\u2019t have cultivated anywhere else,\u201d Labine said<\/p>\n