I Got My Life Back
Last year, I got really sick with a viral infection and shortly after lost my ability to walk completely. I went to numerous doctors and specialists who did extensive tests and could not diagnose the exact reason for this physical condition.
After nine months of extensive vitamin therapies and physical therapy, I had improved, but was still using a cane and was unable to tolerate great distances or crowded settings. I could not go grocery shopping or navigate through a parking lot. I had to change my job and have someone drive me places. I started to have whole body muscle spasms, speech difficulties, fatigue, and nerve pain that would keep me up at nights.
After a year of dealing with this, I came to Whitaker Wellness. After a few weeks of hyperbaric oxygen treatments, I could move around without my walker! I also got my speech back and can drive without concern of a spasmodic event.
All of those involved truly saved my life. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate for their skill, care, and willingness to provide effective help.
— Roshy S., California*
Hyperbaric Oxygen a Key to Recovery
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment at the Whitaker Wellness Institute is a worthwhile investment for us. I really feel it is one of the keys in helping my son to recover from autism. We have been blessed because I have been told that our son will most likely be one of the lucky ones who will have a full recovery. Even with a full recovery, I might add, there are certain things that he will have to do the rest of his life. Periodic hyperbaric treatments might be one of them as a maintenance program. And if that’s the case, then so be it. It’s a miracle!
— M.J., California*
Hyperbaric Oxygen Reduced Pain
After receiving 16 hyperbaric oxygen treatments, the pain I was experiencing in my legs due to poor circulation had been reduced by 80 percent. I don’t take any medication for pain, day or night.
My lung capacity has improved and my skin has a healthy color. I even look younger!
— Pat Height, Mesa, Arizona*
“Nobody Heals Like That!”
I recently fell and landed smack on my elbow, snapping a bone in two just below the elbow joint. My daughter brought me in for a hyperbaric treatment the next day between my appointments with my surgeon and the outpatient surgery he scheduled. The surgery went well but the next day the swelling was terrible.
The next day while being put in the chamber the HBOT department staff noticed there was blood on my clothing. After my treatment I went to the emergency room and was referred to my doctor. The orthopedist explained that a surgical blister had developed and because my skin was frail, it had burst, causing the loss of a lot of blood and drainage into my hand. My hand was painful and look like a deep purple ham. The doctor said it looked just like gangrene.
I had a total of five HBOT treatments in seven days, and with each one there was a visible lessening of the swelling, tenderness, and discoloration. One week to the day we walked into the surgeon’s office, all the swelling and 95 percent of the discoloration was gone. We knew the doctor would be surprised. The look on his face was priceless. His eyes got big, and his eyebrows raised. When he took the splint off, the skin on my arm was completely healed and baby soft. The X-ray looked great and he told me to start using my arm. His exact words were, ‘Nobody heals like that!’ I then let him in on my secret: five HBOT treatments.
Words cannot adequately express how blessed I feel that I got such kind and excellent care from your staff and that I have access to such an incredible therapy.
— 91-year-old mother of a Whitaker Wellness employee*
Burns Healed Without Scarring
Stephanie Rudat, a personal friend of my family, is an energetic, attractive young lady who is building a successful career in real estate. While preparing a house to show a potential buyer, she struck a match to light a gas fireplace that had a slow leak. It exploded in her face.
She sustained first and second degree burns all over her face; her eyebrows and hairline were singed; and there were flash burns in her nasal passages and down into her windpipe. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital and admitted to the intensive care unit.
During her three-day hospital stay, she was evaluated by a plastic surgeon. She was told that she could expect to have scarring and patches of discoloration, which would likely require plastic surgery to correct.
My wife and I visited Stephanie in the hospital, and she told me about her prospects for plastic surgery. I told her that first—as soon as she was released from the hospital—she should come to the clinic for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). The day after she was released, she began a course of HBOT and over the next three weeks had 25 treatments.
Less than one month after her accident, Stephanie’s face was completely healed—with no scarring at all. In fact, one of her doctors commented that if he didn’t know she’d had a severe flash burn, he would never believe it had happened.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
Parkinson’s Dramatically Improved
I am writing to tell you how delighted I have been with the results of my treatment for Parkinson’s when I attended your clinic in February of this year.
My mobility was greatly improved as my unsteady gate smoothed out to a normal stride. Three days of treatment and I lost my ‘Parkinson’s mask’, regaining my usual big smile. My speech cleared up losing its slur. I woke early in the morning after a refreshing sleep ready to meet the day challenges. My appetite improved, my sense of taste picked up and I found the meals served tasted delicious. Much to my wife’s astonishment, I found avocados, mushrooms, and eggplant enjoyable, things I would never have taste before no matter how I was cajoled.
Each time I was given hyperbaric oxygen therapy my sense of well-being increased until I felt better than I had for many years.
Over, around, and above all these exciting improvements were the kindly, compassionate, and highly professional staff cheering me on, rejoicing with me over every improvement, encouraging my progress, and making me feel like I really mattered.
Thanks to all who played a part in restoring so much of my physical well-being and filling my heart once again with hope. God bless you with great joy in your service to others.
— Gerald Beers*
You’ll Never Walk Again
Damien, an athletic 24-year-old, was on vacation with his family at Lake Mead, Nevada, when he dove off the back of a pontoon boat, hit the bottom, and broke his neck. He woke up in a hospital 10 days later, hooked up to ventilator and unable to move due to a dislocation of the vertebrae in his neck.
He underwent a number of surgeries, including a spinal fusion. When he left the hospital three months later, his doctors told him that except for a twitch in his left bicep, he would have no movement from the neck down for the rest of his life. They were wrong.
Damien’s road to recovery began after he got out of the hospital and into an intensive rehabilitation program. But it really took off about a year ago, when he came to the Whitaker Wellness Institute for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). When Damien first starting coming to the clinic for HBOT, he had so little muscular control that he was unable to sit up and required a reclining wheelchair. At first, progress was measured in terms of twitches—he recalls sitting for hours and hours trying to get a calf muscle to contract. But he stayed motivated; worked very, very hard in physical therapy several hours a day, five days a week; and kept on coming in for regular HBOT treatments. And over time, it all started to come together.
Today, two and a half years later, Damien does wheelies in his wheelchair, leg presses 160 pounds, takes halting steps with a walker, and is 100 percent convinced that he will walk again. Damien, now 27, has far surpassed all of his doctors’ predictions. He is so inspired by his progress that he is writing a business plan to open a facility where people with spinal cord injuries can receive HBOT, physical therapy, and nutritional therapies in a positive, healing, caring environment. With this young man’s determination and resolve, I have no doubt that he will succeed.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
Ticket to Independence
R.B. had just about every diabetic complication you can imagine: retinopathy, two heart attacks, a stubborn ulcer on her foot, and severe neuropathy. She had absolutely no sensation in her feet, was unable to walk without assistance, and had extreme pain to the lightest of touch. She came to the clinic with her daughter and was treated with HBOT and enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP).
HBOT and EECP were R.B.’s ticket to independence. Within days, sensation returned to her feet, and her diabetic ulcer started to heal. After two weeks of treatment she did something that used to be unthinkable: She and her daughter spent the weekend shopping and sightseeing.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
“Nothing Short of Miraculous”
Vic, a 71-year-old who had two strokes in the summer of 1999, left the hospital in a wheelchair with severe speech, vision, and hearing deficits. After one month in a rehabilitation center, he was sent home. His wife was advised that there was no hope of improvement and it was suggested that she put him in a nursing home.
Refusing to accept this, his wife called the Whitaker Wellness Institute for help. She brought her husband to the clinic for hyperbaric oxygen therapy some six months after his initial stroke and he returned for a second course of treatment a few months later. One day, when the director of our hyperbaric center arrived at work, he noticed Vic and his wife walking around the parking lot. They had come to express their gratitude and show us how miraculously far Vic had come. Although he continues to have a little trouble with his balance, Vic walks at least a mile a day and is back to his former activities. His improvements, according to both Vic and his wife, are “nothing short of miraculous.”
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
HBOT Helps Marine Recovery From Battle Wounds
Angel Gomez, a 19-year-old Marine, was a month and a half into his second tour in Iraq when the vehicle he was driving hit a roadside bomb. Two weeks later, he awoke in a VA hospital in Maryland with a serious blast injury and shrapnel wounds that destroyed part of his skull and damaged areas of his brain. He had several reconstructive surgeries and spent three years in rehab relearning how to talk, walk, and perform other activities of daily living.
His progress was remarkable. Angel learned to walk on his own and to write and eat with his left hand to compensate for his partially paralyzed right arm. His speech and cognitive function improved, but he still had some frustrating memory deficits. So he came to the Whitaker Wellness Institute for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).
After 80 HBOT treatments, Angel has made unprecedented progress. He’s quicker, in both his speech and thought processes, and his memory is getting better all the time. Angel reports that he’s texting his friends, something he wasn’t able to do before. He’s feeling more energetic, confident, and in control of his future. He’s also noticed improvements in his right arm. It’s more flexible and feels stronger.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
Unprecedented Improvements Following Stroke
In November 2007, John Wycislak suffered a stroke that robbed him of his ability to walk, talk, and swallow. Confined to a wheelchair and fed through a tube, he was given little expectation of recovery.
The following summer, his wife Theresa learned about the rehabilitation benefits of HBOT and brought John to Whitaker Wellness. When he arrived, he couldn’t even stand without assistance. But after five hyperbaric sessions, he was able, with a little help, to take a few halting steps. Two months into treatment, his swallowing reflex returned and he began eating again.
Since his treatment course, John has made unprecedented progress. His memory has dramatically improved, and he’s talking and joking again. He has continued with physical therapy, and he’s now able to pull himself up and walk with the aid of a walker and a little assistance. Theresa, who calls Whitaker Wellness “a little patch of heaven on Earth,” reports that John is getting better and better every day.
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
Regained Function With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Dorothy G. and her sister Sandra had already set a date to come to Whitaker Wellness when Dorothy had a stroke. Sandra called to cancel, but after being told by her doctor in Colorado that “most people don’t come out of this,” they decided to forge ahead.
When they arrived at the clinic, Dorothy’s balance was off, she walked with a shuffle, her speech was slurred, and she had limited use of her dominant hand. She immediately began treatment with hyperbaric oxygen, IV glutathione, and other therapies, and her progress was amazing.
Within days, she began to speak normally, and her sense of balance returned, allowing her to walk with a normal gait. Her fine motor function was restored as well, and she went from being unable to sign her name to writing. By the time they left the clinic, she was climbing stairs. You couldn’t tell which sister had had a stroke!
Dorothy said, “I knew nothing about strokes. Who thinks about such a thing until it happens to them? If I hadn’t planned on coming to this clinic for my diabetes and high blood pressure, I don’t know where I would be today. I am thrilled with my progress and so thankful for Dr. Whitaker. In addition to giving me back my normal life, my diabetes and hypertension are under much better control. I was on five medications for these conditions, and now I’m on one blood pressure drug. I feel better than I have in years.”
— from Health & Healing by Julian Whitaker, MD*
*Individual results may vary.
