Word: tetanus
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...easy matter. Before he could risk his new procedure on children, Dr. Boerema had experimented widely with the effects of high pressure. In the process, he discovered that oxygen drenching was good for victims of gas gangrene, which is caused by a bacillus closely related to that of tetanus. When he figured out the explanation, he realized that he had done more than develop a new form of therapy; at last he knew enough about the effects of high pressure to start his operations...
...already in desperate shape. His jaw was stiff, and he could hardly open his mouth. He had difficulty in swallowing, and he was suffering from severe pains in his legs and back. St. James doctors had no trouble diagnosing Douma's problem: he was dying from tetanus (lockjaw) caused by a dirty wooden splinter he had picked up in his chicken yard 13 days before...
Without much hope, the doctors started all the standard treatments: a hefty shot of tetanus antitoxin (to counteract the poison released by the bacteria in the festering wound), penicillin to reduce the spread of infection, sedatives to calm the anguished patient, and muscle relaxants to ease his stiffening, contorted body. They cleaned the infected wound and put Douma in an oxygen tent (because the nerve center that controls breathing is especially susceptible to tetanus poison). But it seemed to be too late. During the next 24 hours, Douma suffered several convulsions and muscle spasms. His back arched like...
Gangrene is not the same as tetanus, but the bacilli that cause both problems are closely related; they-and possibly also the poisons they make-are destroyed by an excess of oxygen. The Surgery report was by Dr. I. Boerema and his colleagues at Amsterdam's Wilhelmina Hospital, but a hasty transatlantic call failed to reach Dr. Boerema. Eventually an assistant gave the necessary information, and with the consent of Douma's family, the Chicago Heights team decided to go ahead...
Death for Half. Exactly why the compression chamber treatment worked so well, Farmer Douma's doctors are not sure. They know that the penicillin they administered kills tetanus bacilli; oxygen presumably helps to kill them faster. Oxygen's effect on poisons manufactured by the bacilli is not yet known, so the Douma case alone proves little. But one of the doctors remarked: "It's amazing that such a relatively simple and obvious treatment, based on an old but neglected principle, should have to wait until 1962 to be tested." Equally amazing is the fact that although lockjaw...