HOW WE GOT HERE

Our organization has pioneered a new direction with mHBOT for children. We use state-of-the-art, high-end, portable hyperbaric oxygen chambers to help children with Cerebral Palsy, Autism and other neurological disorders. The sessions with the mHBOT have been so successful that the first portable chamber was purchased in 2000.

For the next five years, this chamber was delivered to the home where the children resided and remained there for at least three weeks, with parents operating the chamber. At the end of the period, the chamber would be moved to the next child on the list and after several months the chamber would be returned to the first child’s home and the schedule would repeat itself.

While this program greatly improved these children’s lives and that of the care-givers, its weakness was that only one child per day could be treated.

In 2006, fund-raisers were held to purchase a second chamber, planned to be operated at a location whereby several children a day could be scheduled for its use. The mHBOT program was so successful that by the end of the year, a total of five portable chambers were in operation; two in St. Petersburg, one each in Pinellas Park and Tampa, and on the east coast of the state. This allowed up to 25 children per day to receive these treatments.

Between 2006 and 2010, as many as five chambers were in operation in private homes, a situation that could not go on forever. Therefore, in early 2011, following some restructuring and reorganizing, we are in the process of opening the nation’s first mHBOT-Center for Children, with all children receiving free mHBOT sessions. Currently, we are slated to open in March, perhaps as late as April.

We have also instituted an “Sponsor-a-Child”-program, which is which allows an individual or an organization to donate funds to cover the course of treatment for one child, which is typically 1 to 40 one-hour sessions of mHBOT sessions.