A Sudbury clinic is using pure oxygen to treat injuries, infections

A new form of medical treatment for northern Ontario is now being offered at a clinic in Sudbury.

It is the first to provide hyperbaric medicine, and is now taking patients..

Sudbury Hyperbarics and Wound Care is run by family physician, Dr. Renee Jacques. It offers oxygen therapy for patients dealing with non-healing wounds, delayed radiation injuries and other complex medical conditions.

"We provide you with 100 per cent oxygen or near 100 per cent oxygen and we also provide you with pressure. How we do that is by you going into a chamber. Think of it as your body diving underwater about 10 meters and with both the [pure oxygen] and the pressure, we can increase the amount of oxygen that your blood can carry for that time," explained Jacques.

"With repeated treatments, we can help with wound healing and other types ailments and it can help with creating new vasculature as well."

Dr. Sam Peters, a family doctor, hyperbaric medicine physician, and Dr. Jacques's husband, elaborated on the science behind the treatment. 

"Normally, oxygen is carried by the red blood cells, but under pressure, it supplies the plasma with extra oxygen and that's able to bypass the crevices that the blood cells may not be able to get around to and supply it to the injured tissue to help with the healing process," he said.

Dr. Peters also highlighted the patient experience. 

"Usually, the treatments are 90 minutes to two hours and we have stretchers that they get rolled into. They get to lay down and watch Netflix or their favourite show for a couple of hours while they're getting their treatments," said Dr. Peters.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for 14 medical conditions, including an embolism, carbon monoxide poisoning, chronic anemia, non-healing wounds, skin grafts, traumatic injuries, decompression sickness, radiation injuries, hearing loss, brain or bone infections and burns.

While there are a number of similar clinics in southern Ontario, Dr. Jacques emphasized the importance of access, especially in a geographically vast region like northern Ontario. 

"Having something closer to home allows patients a bit more of that flexibility. If they only need to be gone for a couple hours a day, maybe they can maintain their jobs, maintain their presence in their family and things like that. Or maybe it's a four-hour trip instead of like an eight-hour trip from certain northern communities. So for us, that was super important," said Dr. Jacques.

The creation of the facility required significant logistical planning and innovation, including importing specialized chambers from the United States. 

"We're located in the basement of a building. So, we had to create a new door on the side of the concrete and the outside of the building to slowly drop the chambers," Dr. Jacques recounted. "We were able to finally bring that to life,a nd that was quite something."

The clinic was also made possible through support from the City of Greater Sudbury's physician recruitment team. 

"We actively support physician recruitment and the expansion of new healthcare services, which significantly improve care options for our residents," wrote the city's communications advisor in an e-mail to CBC Sudbury. 

"The city understands the critical importance of our residents being able to receive high-quality care close to home. We remain committed to increasing access to healthcare for everyone in our community."