On the night of the 10 January the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center (OTI) of COMSUBIN was activated by the doctors of the emergency room of the “San Bartolomeo” hospital in Sarzana to treat in emergency, the members of a family nucleus of Amelia (father of 51 years, mother of 42 and a son of 10 years), victims of a serious carbon monoxide intoxication, which occurred in a domestic environment.
The three members of the family unit were transported to the emergency room of the hospital in red code and after the initial checks, the COMSUBIN on-call system was alerted to carry out an emergency-urgency oxygen therapy treatment that was conducted by medical officers and nurse non-commissioned officers specialized in underwater and hyperbaric medicine, as well as by divers of the Diving Operations Group.
In a short time, the patients were transferred by ambulance to the OTI center in Varignano, where the only hyperbaric system in the province is active, to carry out the first OTI treatment which, conducted according to precise indications and rigorous use protocols, is capable of guaranteeing sometimes little known clinical results: decompression sickness resulting from underwater activities, carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, crushing injuries or fractures at risk and many other pathologies.
Following the ratification of the agreement between the Diving and Inshore Pools and the Local Health Authority No. 5 of La Spezia, from 20 September 2016 263 individual Oxygen Therapy treatments were carried out in favor of civilian patients in the province of La Spezia.
