The Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility is raising funds for improvement of services. When I used to teach out of Tobermory, we were able to offer highly valuable classes at the chamber. Divers could learn about hyperbaric medicine and also experience narcosis first hand. The experience opened a lot of eyes to risks of deep air diving and also removed the stigma of getting bent. All my students walked away with a better understanding and safer outlook on diving.
If you can help this facility, please consider it. If you dive out of Fathom Five National Marine Sanctuary, consider it an investment in your own safety!
Thanks for your consideration.
Jill
PS - If you are American... remember the Canadian dollar is a piece of crap right now! Give twice as much.
Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility Needs YOUR Help !
Since 1976, the Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility has been in existence, rendering immediate emergency treatment to divers, conducting investigations into diving accidents, devising improvements to safety and supporting efforts to make the sport safe and enjoyable. Now, they need your help!
The original 54 inch deck decompression chamber purchased with a grant from the provincial government in 1975 has always been a tight space in which to operate and has limited the capacity for the diver education program there. The need for an efficient, state-of-the-art facility to continue to provide these services remains as important as ever, with new challenges arising from the increased use of closed circuit rebreathers and mixed gas diving. Fortunately, the incidence of diving accidents remains low permitting us to utilize the facility for medical applications of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have been able to do this from the earliest time, treating conditions approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and Ontario Ministry of Health. Over 70% of the medical cases are patients who have developed complications as a result of radiation therapy for cancer. The balance of the other patients are made up of chronic wounds, CO poisonings and air embolisms arising from medical misadventure.
Future plans for the Tobermory Chamber involve:
- Replacement of the small chamber with a new larger chamber and door to facilitate efficient transfer of the seriously injured
- A move to the quarters already built as part of the community health clinic
- Development of three distinct programs. They are:
Sport Diving Program: The most important one for the divers will be the sport diving program which combines a lecture on safe diving and accident avoidance with an excursion in the chamber to experience, firsthand in a safe environment, the effects of nitrogen and pressure on their body. There will also be the opportunity for training sessions with instructors, dive masters and other special groups.
Medical Treatment Program: This program will deal with the treatment of medical conditions for which hyperbaric oxygen has been recognized as a cost-effective treatment and include the 14 conditions recognized by the UHMS and Ontario Ministry of Health. The need for these services is expected to evolve as these conditions are more prevalent in an aging population.
Research and Education Program : This program will overlap with the other two programs and involve continued exploration of diving problems with the intent of promoting changes in diving practices that will enhance the safe enjoyment of the sport. It will also include formal research projects related to problems arising both from diving and the application of hyperbaric oxygen to disease conditions. The facility will be working to ensure that time spent studying here qualifies as part of the educational path for physicians training to acquire the newly established Royal Colleges diploma in Hyperbaric and Diving Medicine.
Support: Your support is needed now. To bring the facility to the standard needed to achieve these important objectives will take $350,000, of which 40% has already been raised. Every dollar counts and if the estimated 100,000 divers in Ontario each contributes one dollar will be 50% of the way there.
Contributions over $10 can receive an income tax receipt provided the contribution is made out to the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula labeled for the Hyperbaric Chamber.
Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility Website with Donation Guidelines
Tobermory Hyperbaric
Also, follow the facility's progress on Facebook and Twitter. Links to these are on the website above.
THANKS to Dr. George Harpur for his continued efforts to maintain emergency hyperbaric facilities for divers and patients of all types.
If you can help this facility, please consider it. If you dive out of Fathom Five National Marine Sanctuary, consider it an investment in your own safety!
Thanks for your consideration.
Jill
PS - If you are American... remember the Canadian dollar is a piece of crap right now! Give twice as much.
Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility Needs YOUR Help !
Since 1976, the Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility has been in existence, rendering immediate emergency treatment to divers, conducting investigations into diving accidents, devising improvements to safety and supporting efforts to make the sport safe and enjoyable. Now, they need your help!
The original 54 inch deck decompression chamber purchased with a grant from the provincial government in 1975 has always been a tight space in which to operate and has limited the capacity for the diver education program there. The need for an efficient, state-of-the-art facility to continue to provide these services remains as important as ever, with new challenges arising from the increased use of closed circuit rebreathers and mixed gas diving. Fortunately, the incidence of diving accidents remains low permitting us to utilize the facility for medical applications of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. We have been able to do this from the earliest time, treating conditions approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society and Ontario Ministry of Health. Over 70% of the medical cases are patients who have developed complications as a result of radiation therapy for cancer. The balance of the other patients are made up of chronic wounds, CO poisonings and air embolisms arising from medical misadventure.
Future plans for the Tobermory Chamber involve:
- Replacement of the small chamber with a new larger chamber and door to facilitate efficient transfer of the seriously injured
- A move to the quarters already built as part of the community health clinic
- Development of three distinct programs. They are:
Sport Diving Program: The most important one for the divers will be the sport diving program which combines a lecture on safe diving and accident avoidance with an excursion in the chamber to experience, firsthand in a safe environment, the effects of nitrogen and pressure on their body. There will also be the opportunity for training sessions with instructors, dive masters and other special groups.
Medical Treatment Program: This program will deal with the treatment of medical conditions for which hyperbaric oxygen has been recognized as a cost-effective treatment and include the 14 conditions recognized by the UHMS and Ontario Ministry of Health. The need for these services is expected to evolve as these conditions are more prevalent in an aging population.
Research and Education Program : This program will overlap with the other two programs and involve continued exploration of diving problems with the intent of promoting changes in diving practices that will enhance the safe enjoyment of the sport. It will also include formal research projects related to problems arising both from diving and the application of hyperbaric oxygen to disease conditions. The facility will be working to ensure that time spent studying here qualifies as part of the educational path for physicians training to acquire the newly established Royal Colleges diploma in Hyperbaric and Diving Medicine.
Support: Your support is needed now. To bring the facility to the standard needed to achieve these important objectives will take $350,000, of which 40% has already been raised. Every dollar counts and if the estimated 100,000 divers in Ontario each contributes one dollar will be 50% of the way there.
Contributions over $10 can receive an income tax receipt provided the contribution is made out to the Municipality of Northern Bruce Peninsula labeled for the Hyperbaric Chamber.
Tobermory Hyperbaric Facility Website with Donation Guidelines
Tobermory Hyperbaric
Also, follow the facility's progress on Facebook and Twitter. Links to these are on the website above.
THANKS to Dr. George Harpur for his continued efforts to maintain emergency hyperbaric facilities for divers and patients of all types.
