ABC15.com - When a car knocked down a series of street signs six months ago, one of them flew through Donna Pritchett's car window, and lodged itself into her body.
"I was aware that there was a post in my arm, and I could see bones sticking out," said Pritchett. "I knew I was seriously injured."
Pritchett lost a finger and a piece of her arm in the accident, and suffered bone and tissue damage.
"The worst part of my injury is where the post went in through my arm, and exited my back," said Pritchett.
After spending months in the hospital, weeks in a nursing home and going through more than a dozen surgeries, Pritchett went to Dr. Carl Sonder for a new kind of treatment-- Hyperbaric Chamber Oxygen Therapy (HBOT).
"Before her first treatment when I evaluated her, she had about this much range of motion of the shoulder," said Dr. Sonder, moving his arm slightly. "By the end of treatment nine, she was waving goodbye to me at the end of her treatment and showing me that she could put her hand behind her back."
HBOT was first used for diving injuries, and is now widely practiced in other countries to help the immune system and revitalize tissue, Sonder said.
There are only a handful of the chambers in the Valley.
"It's beyond astonishing and breathtaking," said Dr. Sonder. "We couldn't be happier for her. But it's also a great vindication for us here and for me as a physician, because this is a modality whose time has come in this country."
Pritchett credits the treatment with regaining mobility and fading her scars.
"I thought my wounds were always going to be pretty much like they were, and I'm just so grateful that I had the doctors I had and the help here," she said. "They work miracles."
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