Believe it: Hyperbaric therapy uses unique treatment to heal St. Luke’s patients

In a way, it looks so futuristic. And sometimes, the results make it feel otherworldly.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy allows patients to breathe medical-grade oxygen while inside a pressurized chamber. The higher pressure forces more oxygen into the bloodstream, dissolves it into plasma and carries it to areas starved of oxygen.

It didn’t take long for St. Luke’s safety director Steve Richardson to become a believer after it became part of the care options at St. Luke’s more than 20 years ago.

“When we first started it was new for the hospital,” Richardson said. “We had only been open for about a year when we got an after-hours crush injury. He was an 18- to 19-year-old … and he was out working and a 2,000-pound battery fell on his foot. We put him in the chamber, and you knew exactly what was going to happen after the first treatment.

“You knew what was dark and dusky in his foot was going to have a hard time healing. What was bright and pink, you knew the blood flow was getting to it. It was amazing to me to watch. His toes went mummified, but the hyperbaric saved the upper part of his foot. So, he lost a few toes, but not the whole foot. Results like that are always the goal.”

Some of the more common conditions treated include diabetic food ulcers and nonhealing wounds, crush injuries, radiation tissue damage, carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness (the bends) and chronic bone infections.

St. Luke’s Wound Care has clinics in Wood River, Twin Falls and McCall, with hyperbarics in Meridian and Boise. Check out our recent story on a Wood River patient who has benefited from the wound care team in her recovery after an accident.

“We treat only the approved indications by UHMS (Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society) and there are currently (15) approved indications,” said Shannon House, supervisor of St. Luke’s Wound and Hyperbarics, who will take the role of UHMS president in May. “The ones we see the most are radiation injuries. That includes people who have had cancer treatments and have had radiation. … It can create a lot of problems with your body, because it doesn’t tolerate radiation.”

Over the years, House has seen the variety of ways hyperbaric therapy can be beneficial for St. Luke’s patients.

“With carbon monoxide, we’re saving patients from permanent neurological damage,” she said. “You can even see when someone comes in with carbon monoxide poisoning how much clearer they are by the end of their treatment by the end of their treatment that first day.

“I’ve seen very terrible foot wounds that I never would have thought would heal go on to heal. … In cases of prostate cancer, we’re the last option because if we can’t stop the bleeding they are going to lose the bladder.”

Despite being a part of the St. Luke’s Health System for more than two decades, the staff says there is sometimes an aura of mystery – and misunderstanding – surrounding hyperbarics. Richardson said he’s educated non-St. Luke’s physicians that it isn’t “voodoo.”

“We always joke that … people don’t know we exist,” House said.

House said she thinks it’s important that people know that hyperbaric therapy is a safe, viable option offered by St. Luke’s. Of note, patients are not left alone while in the chamber.

All St. Luke’s staff in the clinics are certified in hyperbarics as a specialty. Additionally, the clinic is accredited from the UHMS with distinction.

“We have a long process where we make sure that there is no reason that we couldn’t safely put someone in a chamber. Not everyone qualifies,” House said.

In June of 2024, St. Luke’s showed its commitment to hyperbaric therapy by acquiring six new chambers in Meridian. Crews had to use a crane to get the chambers into the clinic, which is on the fourth floor of the Portico building near St. Luke’s Meridian Medical Center.

“That’s well over $1 million,” Richardson said. “That’s quite the investment.”

Karen Rains: Rains’ claim to fame at the St. Luke’s hyperbarics clinic is her record-breaking number of times she has been in the chambers (approximately 100 sessions).

“They had a pizza party for me after my record-breaking time in the chamber,” Rains said with a laugh.

Rains was referred to the clinic after undergoing a frustrating series of surgeries.

“I had a wound that developed that was related to child birth,” Rains said. “My son, Nelson, was 12 pounds, 4 ounces, and I ended up with some damage.”

Rains admits to initially being a little apprehensive about hyperbaric therapy.

“The first time I went there I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “But the staff showed me the chambers and did a really good job of explaining it.”

Over the course of her sessions, Rains said she became friends with the staff – and eventually had a good outcome.

“I went through a lot, but to fast forward to today, I’m completely normal and my son’s completely normal,” said Rains, a former St. Luke’s nurse.

And she has become an advocate of sorts for using hyperbaric therapy.

“I didn’t really know anything about it,” Rains said. “I hope more people hear about it, because I’m not sure how my story would have ended without it.”

Cassidy Ihouma: Ihouma suffered a stroke in 2020, 15 days before her 27^th birthday.

“It was caused by an AVM (arteriovenous malformation). So, it ruptured and I had a stroke,” Ihouma said. “I went to a rehab hospital and I had to relearn how to walk and everything. When I got out, I had to get radiation on that AVM because it was inoperable. … The radiation ended up causing edema, which causes swelling in your brain.”

Slowly, the left side of her body started shutting down. Radiation necrosis (the death of healthy tissue caused by radiation therapy) was diagnosed.  

“It was just starting to kill my brain,” Ihouma said. “We had to get it to stop. I tried steroids … and that was unsuccessful. I did chemotherapy with Avastin (a drug given to starve tumors by blocking new vessel growth). But those methods didn’t work.”

Then, she was able to get her insurance to approve hyperbaric therapy. She went through two long series of treatments – one of which consisted of 40 trips in 40 days to the clinic in Meridian.

“We finally got the swelling to stop with the hyperbarics,” Ihouma said. “I still deal with stuff from the stroke. I still can’t use my left hand, and I still walk funny. But I don’t have swelling in my brain, and I can tell that. … I don’t have that brain fog that was persistently there.”

For that, she is thankful to the staff at the Meridian hyperbaric therapy clinic.

“The team there is amazing,” she said. “I loved all the doctors and nurses I worked with. … It was a really amazing experience. I trust those nurses that I worked with so much. They made me comfortable and answered my questions.”