ABC ACTION NEWS TAMPA - Michael Kirchenstiner is in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at UCH Carrollwood. He didn't suffer a diving accident nor is he trying to treat a diabetic wound. He's trying to heal the internal bleeding that came after radiation treatments for prostate cancer.
Anne-Marie Carroll is his daughter. "The radiation just destroyed the lining of his bladder so when he was going to the bathroom, it was solid blood. He had to go through massive blood transfusions. They didn't think they were going to save him."
One of his doctors suggested - as a last resort - hyperbaric oxygen therapy. His wife Ruth was, “willing to try anything if it would help him."
Michael says, "I'd never heard of it before. It's something relatively new to me. But the choices I had there was no alternative. I think I'd be dead now if I hadn't started this."
So how did this treatment, regularly used to treat divers with the bends, repair his damaged bladder?
Doctor Ajay Patel, of UCH Carrollwood explains. "The way this hyperbaric oxygen therapy works is that he would sit in the chamber and breathe pressurized oxygen and in doing so that increased the oxygen to his entire body, in particular to healing tissue. So the bladder injured by the radiation, think of it like a burn, is getting the oxygen therapy and it allowed this to heal."
Michael still has to finish up a few more weeks of treatment - 60 sessions in all. But Anne-Marie is thankful. "We come 6 days a week for two and a half hours a day. But it's a small for the price of my daddy's life. His attitude when we started this was bad because he didn't' think he was going to make it and he just completely turned around. It’s been great.”
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