FIRST SPONSOR MEETS ELIJAH.

The June 25th email from Annette Cruz was unusually poignant as she related the horror of her three year old son’s sudden and unexplained stoppage of breathing just after his birthday in April 2010. Exhausting all available medical remedies, she researched on line for new ideas, new hope. She learned about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, but knew she could not afford it until she found our website, She wrote, “..I found that HBOT is the only thing that can help us…my cousin told me about your Center and I just wanted to cry…I thank God for Centers like this because it’s people who truly care about others.” Hardy Bryan of the Center emailed her message to people on his contact list just to communicate that we continually receive messages like this one.

A high school classmate of Hardy’s, Sallie Miller Lowell, emailed Hardy asking the cost that would be incurred if we were able to schedule Elijah. When the answer was provided, Sallie said she was going to seek funds from other classmates to pay Elijah’s cost. Hardy assured Sallie that the child would be treated, sponsorship or not, but Sallie started on her mission. One other member of the class immediate provided a check, and Sallie, before contacting others, said she would pay the rest, which was 90% of the total cost. The two checks arrived, and Hardy offered that Sallie and the Cruz’s meet at the Center. That meeting occurred on Monday August 23rd. Sallie spoke with the mother and grandfather and brought gifts for Elijah. She also met many other families there and was deeply moved. After Elijah’s morning therapy ended, the Cruz’s, Sallie, Hardy. Mark and Betsy Fowler and their daughter Danlee had lunch together. Upon returning to the Center, Sallie was given the opportunity to experience a mHBOT session before returning to Tampa.

Sallie’s donation in the amount to cover Elijah’s 40 treatments, while he and his family stay at the Ronald McDonald House, was the first time a gift was earmarked to treat a specific child.

Sallie, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, and salute you for being the first, but from the smile on your face, and the smile from Elijah,and the hugs and kisses from the Cruz’s, we know you will forever cherish what you have enabled us to do for this family. Others who may wish to sponsor a child for 40 treatments need only to contact us here at the Center.

Not often that we who operate the Chamber of Hope Hyperparic Center raise money to help someone else purchase a chamber. But that is exactly what happened on a warm and humid day on August 21st, 2010, in Ruskin. Florida.

The event lasted all day, and featured live music, BBQ pork, a silent auction, blueberry and strawberry flavored snow cones, popcorn, a bake sale, a book sale, and several booths. One booth was run by Selama Grotto, touting the benefits of mHBOT and handing out our brochures.

Twice during the day, Mark Fowler and Hardy Bryan addressed the crowd of about 2000 people about our role in treating the Bloomingdale Library Attack Victim. The victim and her family were there and were warming greeting by friends and relatives. The purpose of the event was to raise funds so the victim could purchase a hyperbaric chamber to be used in her home. Travel time and chamber time for her to come to St. Petersburg from her home east of Tampa was five hours per trip. With the chamber always available in her home, she is assured of daily therapy. The event was hosted by the Ruskin Chamber of Commerce.

It was 20 months between the attack and the start of mHBOT at our Center. Her doctors said there was little hope she will ever be better than she was at the end of 20 months. She could not speak, see, eat, move any extremities, including her head. As she received therapy with the Center, her condition steadily improved. One day, when the nurse, Ashley Waring and the victim’s mother were discussing a schedule conflict with the mHBOT and another appointment, Ashley said that the victim needs to be here “because mHBOT is the only thing that has helped her.”

Those in attendance who visited her in the hospital and then saw her at this event for the first time since then were stunned at the progress. The event raised $21,000 and a donor who desires to remain anonymous promised to provide the additional $4000 needed to reach the goal. At the end of the day, we returned home knowing there was enough money to buy her a chamber, and knowing that we educated a large number of folks about our Center and our program.

Local Fox 13 news channel (Tampa Bay) reporter Laura Moody covered our Center, showcasing the work we do, and the invaluable services we provide to deserving families, free of charge:

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/pinellas/hyperbaric-therapy-for-free-081010

Please check out our new “Sponsor-a-Child” program. More details will be following in the coming days and weeks.

We finally have a new, beautiful full-color, tri-fold brochure, explaining who we are and what we do. Stop by the Center during business hours to pick some up to distribute and help spread the word. If you want, you can email us with your address, and we’ll gladly mail some to you.

Please take a moment to watch this film by film student, John Salcedo. He won the 2009 REELSHOW INT’L FILM STUDENT/GRADUATE COMMUNITY AWARD (hosted in Sydney, Australia).

His film is entitled “BRAIN STORM OXYGEN UNDER PRESSURE”

[ watch it ]

This movie, while focusing on potential benefits of HBOT for the treatment of PTSD and other military-related injuries, provides good insight on a wide array of all sorts of diseases and dysfunctions.

Hello everyone, we have just launched our new site and are in the process of migrating over from our old site at www.hyperbariccenter.org to the new site www.chamberofhope.org .

We are restructuring the content and trying to make everything more accessible and user-friendly. Please let us know how we’re doing. Please stop by often and spread the word about this site.

GREAT NEWS!!

The Hyperbaric Center now has a Facebook page!
Please stop by, become a fan, and please share with others!

With three hyperbaric oxygen chambers operating over 600 hours per month, the direct operating expenses are just an average of $2,300 per month. That is dirt cheap but still a challenge for us to continue finding that much money each month.

Why so low? We pay no rent as the three chambers are operating out of a private home. We pay no salaries since the entire project is managed with volunteers.

Operating funds are collected from direct donations from patients, those who are able, direct donations from the public, help from civic clubs, other Masonic organizations and churches. The amount collected each month varies widely, but not in our best month, have we collected $2,300. Therefore, one or two volunteers make up the difference. It should not be that way.

Please make a donation. Fifty dollars or a hundred will make a dent in the $2,300, and if enough help, we will have the necessary funds.

A couple of ways to do this: Easiest is to go to our website, also maintained by a volunteer, and make a contribution using PAYPAL. You can do this by credit card without leaving the chair you are now sitting in!

The other way is to send a check make payable to Selama Grotto CP Endowment, Inc, and mail it to Selama Grotto, ATTN: Hyperbaric Center Donations, 3000 – 16th Street North, St. Petersburg, Florida 33704.

Our 501(c)(3) non profit status IRS letter is on our website.

This month, we have 13 autistic children, some with seizures. Other maladies include a three-generation family with Lyme’s disease (yes, grandmother, single mother and her son), a 2-year old boy who suffered a stroke last year, the Bloomingdale Library Attack victim, who moved her arms for the first time since the attack in April, 2008, and many others.

If we receive funds to purchase a replacement chamber for the oldest chamber, now inoperative and uneconomically repairable, we will have a fourth chamber in operation at the Center. We need $23,000 for that, of which we raised $10,000 to date.

Any help you can provide will be appreciate, and will help us stay in operation.

Thank you,

Mark Fowler & Hardy Bryan

Welcome to our new HBOT-Center website. We have reorganized and restructured our website in a string of much-needed and long overdue maintenance. Please let us know what you think!