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Hyperbaric chamber won't close
Toronto General reverses plan on key treatment device
Robert Cribb
STAFF REPORTER
Facing fierce public criticism, Toronto General Hospital has reversed its decision to shut down the city's only hospital-based hyperbaric chamber.
The life-saving medical treatment facility, which had been scheduled to be out of commission for at least 15 months beginning yesterday, will now remain available as hospital officials scramble to keep the unit up and running.
"As of Sept. 30, 2002, the (hyperbaric) chamber was slated to be temporarily closed, but will now remain open until a solution is found to resolve the concerns of the police and firefighters," reads a Sept. 23 memo from hospital CEO and president Tom Closson, which was obtained by The Star.
"This may involve moving our current chamber to another site; renting a multi chamber; or exploring the use of other facilities."
Janet Beed, the hospital's chief operating officer, confirmed yesterday the current chamber will remain open until the hospital is able to get a new machine installed in a different part of the hospital.
"We found you can rent (hyperbaric chambers) on flatbed trucks, install them and return them, and you can buy ones that are a year or two years old," she said, adding she hopes to confirm the hospital's plan within two or three weeks.
"Because these new units are smaller, we can create space for them."
The hyperbaric unit was scheduled to be closed until January, 2004, in order to make room for a new research facility.
The chambers are used to treat ailments such as carbon monoxide poisoning and decompression sickness. Toronto's is the only one in the province capable of managing mass carbon monoxide poisonings because it can treat up to 10 patients at once.
The Toronto General chamber is used in about 1,600 treatments a year for emergency and elective surgery patients, injured firefighters, police officers and divers. Earlier this month, The Star reported grave concerns shared by patients, doctors, police officials and firefighters over the loss of the hospital's hyperbaric unit.
Fire and police officials say they were not consulted on the shutdown and only informed by the hospital of the closing a few weeks ago.
Two weeks ago, a police diver was treated for decompression sickness at Toronto General's hyperbaric unit after returning to the water's surface with blood trickling from one ear.
Police officials said the officer could have suffered "permanent injury" if the unit had not been available.
Hyperbaric doctors have echoed the concerns, saying the loss of the chamber could "kill and maim" those who rely on the medical treatments.
The hospital's decision to keep the facility open "keeps us alive," said Bill Roman, president of the Canadian Council on Clinical Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
Hyperbaric physicians at the hospital, who say they are forbidden from speaking publicly about the closing, are relieved by the about-face.
One doctor said hyperbaric employees have been told the hospital is considering purchasing a chamber from a private facility in Toronto until the hospital's new, $1.5 million chamber is ready in January, 2004.
But experts say that new "state-of-the-art" chamber — recently purchased from an Australian manufacturer — could be delayed longer than hospital administrators anticipated.
That chamber is not licensed by Health Canada, a process that could take months, say federal officials.
Hospital officials insist the licensing will be completed in time for the January, 2004 opening.
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