In the afternoon of 4 July, the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center (OTI), of the Submarine and Incursor Command (COMSUBIN) of the Navy, was activated by the Emergency Department doctors of the “San Andrea” Hospital of La Spezia to treat in emergency, with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a young civilian underwater technical operator suffering from decompression sickness.
The patient was immediately transferred to the OTI center of Varignano, the only active hyperbaric implant in the province, where the medical officers and non-commissioned nurses of the Navy, as well as the divers of the Underwater Operative Group specialized in underwater and hyperbaric medicine, carried out the treatment in emergency that was indispensable to save the person's life.
Conducted according to precise indications and rigorous employment protocols, theOxygen Hyperbaric Therapy is able to solve clinical problems such as decompression sickness resulting from underwater activities, carbon monoxide poisoning, gas gangrene, crush injuries or fractures at risk and many other diseases.
The COMSUBIN Decompression Chamber is available from the 20 September 2016 for civilian patients in the province of La Spezia, thanks to the agreement between the Navy and the Local Health Authority No. 5 that see the armed force perform, in addition to the institutional defense tasks of the Country, also activities in favor of the community.
