Professional Practice
Sport, commercial, military or police divers often end up in the middle of nowhere when they slip into a large body of water. That means when trouble happens, getting them medically stabilized and to a facility can be complicated. Decompression accidents require immediate recompression; any delays in definitive treatment can result in fatal outcome, permanent neurological injury, or other complications.
Hyperbaric recompression chambers are often available where divers work; aboard offshore drilling rigs, oil and gas production platform support vessels, research vessels and island marine science or medical facilities. Although it is not necessary to be medically trained to operate a hyperbaric chamber; medical professionals such as respiratory therapists and registered nurses and or CHTs represent the best clinical option. Additional training is required for any invasive procedures that may be necessary.
There's been a relatively recent interest from some veterinarians in using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to augment traditional medical and surgical treatments in animals. They've now been placed in many veterinary practices, rehabilitation facilities and educational institutions in different countries.
Many other professionals with different qualifications may and should be engaged with a Hyperbaric Medical Centre, such as paramedics, fire specialists and engineers.
At the Hyperbaric Medicine Unit, technologists are responsible for:
- operation of the internal and external devices of the chamber
- control and operation of the mechanisms for compression and decompression and delivering gas mixtures as well as oxygen
- control and application of the safety regulations concerning the prevention of fire and oxygen toxicity
- calculation, application and control of compression and decompression schedules for patients, specialists or doctors, nurses and attendants, applying decompression stops, when necessary
- interventions inside the chamber under pressure to control or check the correct operation of parts of the pneumatic circuits or devices
- adaptation and checking of the medical instruments carried by the patients before being introduced into the chamber to avoid dangerous or undesirable effects
- control and checking of the operation of auxiliary facilities of the chamber, i.e., air-compressors, sources of compressed air or medical gases, air reserves, pneumatic circuits, control systems
- small repair jobs that don't need more specialized technical staff
