Our son Zachary is a ten your old boy with a diagnosis of profound Autism and mild Cerebral Palsy. He does not speak and is still in diapers. He was considered by our local school district to be too “retarded to learn”. He has now had 30 hours of HBOT and getting ten more in one week. As our insurance would not pay for a SPECT scan, and he was judged healthy to give it a try, we have to go by the changes that we see. The differences in Zachary have been incredible! He is dramatically calmer, happier and for the longest period ever, completely non-aggressive! His eye contact had improved immensely. He no longer flies into rages and his sensory distortions seem to have been eased. He has hyper auditory syndrome and would go into agony with certain auditory stimulus. Praise God, that seems to have been helped! He follows simple two step directions with more ease than ever before, ex. he can now get a cup and fill it with ice from the dispenser, miracle. He is also babbling more and responding to voices and music like never before HBOT. He is also sleeping a little better. We are thrilled and plan on continuing as long as we see improvement.

Progress Report

Eleven year boy with profound Autism, who is non-verbal, and is still in diapers.

Progress since undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy:

* Major Major Major increase in understanding

* Major More eye contact

* Major Behavioral changes are easier to handle and function in public place, less aggressive, raging stopped and is much happier

* New ability to mimic simple vocal sounds- of major importance as pre-language sounds he makes have more tone & syllables.

* Shows more interest and contact with his brother, increase in all inter-actions with others

* Accepts new people, places and situations easier.

* Plays with a wider range of toys, instead of only one object

* Less sound sensitive

* Higher functioning in all ways.

Zackary McKim never noticed people let alone mimicked anything they did. He now mimics vocal tones and tuning forks and is more aware of sounds and things that people do. Randi McKim gives credit to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Randi McKim, 2610 Grayfox Rd., Henderson, NV 89014 702-896-5292

Progress Report of Brandon McDaniel while undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy Thirteen year old boy hearing impaired, mentally delayed and non-verbal. 3 Spect Scan images were taken of the brain at baseline, mid and after the 115th treatment. After 350 HBOT 9/02 can work computer.

Major improvement in interactions with family members

Plays with family pets

Major improvements in understanding verbal commands

Beginning to verbally communicate

Responds to knocks at the door and answers the door in a normal manner

Major improvements in balance, especially when he starts to fall, he is able to regain his balance with a faster response. He cross patterns down the steps without holding on.

He is no longer raging/destructive of things in the home.

Sits through movies with more understanding

Better understanding of public surroundings

When music is played he responds in singing tones

Hearing has improved and is no longer required to wear hearing devices

Responds to things/awareness like waiting for the school bus in the morning through the window

Plays with various types of toys with more understanding

Loves to work in the house and yard with Dad.

Mimics everything you ask him to do

Is able to dress himself, is caring for himself in an independent manner

Doing better in school with his assignments

Happier child and smiles more

May 2000
Dear Julie,
My sister Liz said that she had spoken to you about the HBOT treatments we had done with our children. I have 2 children with autism and we completed 40 treatments in San Diego in May, 2000. She mentioned that you might like to hear how the children are doing since their treatment. I first want to say that the tanks in San Diego at Sands Hyperbarics are great. I went in with both of the children and all three ofus were relatively comfortable (they were fine, I was a little squished) but, they watched videos and I would read. Without the hoods it was easy. I have a friend treating her son in Santa Maria with the hoods and that is her whole battle.

Anyway, let me say that the kids began to show improvement right away.

My son is 9 and was somewhat verbal before treatments, obsessive behavior, stimming as a norm, my daughter is 2 and a half, nonverbal, somewhat aloof, both children are hyperlexic.

My daughter had very little interest in me before treatment, preferring my husband, her daily routine consisted of watching videos all day and "reading" her magazines and books. My son would typically play obsessive games to amuse himself, screaming to vocalize his needs for the most part, only using nouns to communicate. After the first few treatments my daughter said, "bye-bye". She also began to say, " mama". She is not consistent in her use of these words, but that she said them at all was a positive thing. She also began to seek me out to play. She definitely has shown more interest in her siblings as well. Her interest in videos has slowed down and she is now playing in our sandbox which was taboo before HBOT. She began to run (which was not there prior) and is attempting stairs one foot over the other versus one stair at a time. Overall she is more aware, less aloof, will look at me and smile when I say hello 2 out of 10 times versus not at all. We are pleased with her results and are looking forward to 40 more treatments in February.

My son! Oh how pleased we are with him as well. Because my daughter is so young, we knew developmentally where we were starting and expected her to move along accordingly but my son always seemed on the verge of something great. We believe HBOT helped push him past several hurdles. He is now properly using pronouns, he tries so hard to get those words in order! He is using prepositions, conjunctions, and will repeat his sentences over and over until he is satisfied with how they sound. He has shown real emotion, told a lie! ! !, and is now able to tell me what is wrong when he is upset. His language is really exploding. He says goodnight to me spontaneously, and let me tell you, my son was echolalic almost completely and that he should communicate like this is nothing short of a miracle and that is the point, God heals, and I believe he is using hyperbarics to change my children. For instance we live in Warren IL near Galena, which is a touristy town and they had a Hot Rod car show going on all down the main street. I said to my son "Eric look at that blue car, isn't it cool?" He looked, and in the past we might have gotten that far, but we drove a little further and he said "Look at that green car, it's beautiful". Without any prompting at all, he also told me that he liked a certain game he was playing. I am absolutely thrilled but I must say without hesitation again that I honestly believe only God heals (although I am of the mind that my children are not broken, just different). I believe He is using hyperbarics to do it. We have done every other treatment for my son. ABA, AIT, gluten casein free diet, secretin, biofeedback, vitamin therapy, treatment for yeast control, elimination of food dyes and preservatives, everything except gamma globulin treatment, and although there was always something small or at least something to learn from all these treatments we never, ever, saw the results that we have through HBOT. If you did not know my children before you may not know what has changed, because we are at the beginning of the journey, we do not expect 40 treatments to be the cure an, but it was one heck of a start. Those who know them see a change. We look forward to the next set!

I would gladly talk to anyone who wants to hear more about it because I think it is important to support each other through it all, there are many issues that arise during treatment, before during and after that need addressing, outbursts by the children somewhere around the 8th treatment, plateauing around the 3Oth, and so on and all children will be different but it helps to kind ofknow what to expect. Also, not seeing many results, than going home only to find new skills emerging 2 weeks or so after you get home! My childrens progress has not had a logical order, also chamber burnout form the mom and high expectations and let downs can be stressful. We all want the cure, we all want our kids with Autism kids to wake up and emerge from their world, every treatment brings new hope and new discouragement, I was very skeptical about this treatment, I read about it, prayed about it and left in the Lords hands. He brought it all together for us and has blessed us through it. I would not lead a mother to such an expensive treatment if I did not believe there is something here for our kids. I am nervous to be so positive for fear one might mortgage their home and do the treatment and not get the results they expect as a direct result from my testimony, but please understand I have seen wonderful, long awaited things happen since hyperbarics and have 2 children to measure progress by. I also have strong faith as well so my recommendation is prayer first, if it is what He has for that persons child may He be with them! Thanks for your time and your wonderful website.

Michelle Divino, 409 Galena, Warren, IL 61087 815-745-2221 Email: Divino@aeroinc.net

Editor's Notes: From all the information we have gathered about HBO treatments, MUMS has found out that a monoplace by regulation can only have one person in it at a time. "Mono" means one. More that one person means more carbon dioxide released and therefore less oxygen present. We have heard of up to 5 people going in a monoplace. This is very dangerous and cannot deliver an effective treatment. Also I have personally seen children with Autism, who parents swore would never tolerate a hood (my daughter included as she will not even wear a hat) end up just loving it. One boy would put it on before we even got to depth and we have to remove it and ask him to wait. His mom was amazed.

Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2001 03:05:36 -0600

To: "mums@netnet.net"
From: Michelle Divino
Subject: We did more treatments and would like to update
Dear Julie,
We did HBOT with our two children with Autism last year in May 2000 and have recently returned from San Diego after doing 27 more treatments with them. I would like to tell you how wonderful this has been for the kids.

My son (10) is just really a different child. He has not only acquired more language but is able to show me just how much he knows by verbalizing and now asking questions. He is so much more related. I cannot begin to tell of all the benefits because they daily improve.

My daughter (3) is also improving daily, with her it is difficult because my son's starting point had to be much higher than hers being that he is so much older so I'd like to say that if she stopped progressing somewhere around 1 year of age, she is now more like a 2 1/2 year old as far as her demeanor and like a 1 1/2 year old with language emergence. She says her abc's, counts, says her name, and is starting to sing and dance to music. She gets excited to see us come home when we are away, and is able to engage in play with her 4 siblings. She is understanding the word no, to the degree that we can stop temper tantrums by saying this to her, like our other children. We have now done almost 70 treatments with the kids. The second round showed improvements much more quickly then the first set. Isabel would play peek-a-boo through the porthole with the technician and really was agreeable to going in the chamber now.

We drove into Tijuana one day while in California and my son said "Goodbye California, hello Mexico" showing that he totally understood crossing a border which is a very complex concept, one I thought he may never understand. He loves to memorize the cable guide, and while we were away we brought the current guide with us. We crossed over from February into March and on Feb. 28th when I put Eric to bed he began to cry softly, when I asked him what's wrong (by the way we have totally reached a point where we expect him to answer after years of asking anyway, only to hear more screaming...) and he said, "It's March" and I said "Yes, tomorrow is March 1st" and he said "The cable guide!" and really began to cry, so I said "We can go tomorrow and get a new cable guide from the cable company ok?"

A little background that is probably not necessary for mothers of children with Autism, this sort of answer of "don't worry we'll take care of it" is not usually understood and will create more of a tantrum. But my son simply said "Ok, a new one tomorrow." I asked "are you happy?" he said "yes". This was the FIRST time in 10 years of his life that he ever asked for anything or that we took a trip to get him something he really wanted. We were so thrilled. This type of communication is now a regular occurence at our house and has so lowered his frustration level that he is happier as our we.

My son did not even speak until he was 6 1/2 and that was nonsensical words and songs or tunes. He was somewhat echolalic as well but his language was very limited. He is now full of questions "where's daddy?" "where's Mommy?" he says "I'm hungry" "it's my turn", where are we going?" he asked what time we'll be back home. he got the concept of days, months, years and seasons. He initiates boyish play with his older brother and wrestles with his younger sisters. He tickles them!

As I stated in my last email to you we have tried every treatment available, pretty much, nothing has changed the course of their lives like HBOT. Again I believe it's through prayer that God has allowed it to work for them, but it has been great. We have a ways to go because we are doing 250 treatments total, but cannot wait to see what every next set of treatments will bring. We noticed improvements in them steadily after the first round for up to almost the year after we went. My son who needed instruction for everything he did, now gets up in the morning, makes his bed, gets dressed, goes downstairs, makes his own breakfast, and his own sandwiches for lunch. We say "kids let's go" and he gets his socks, shoes and coat on by himself, grabs the diaper bag or whatever we're taking and heads out to the car with the rest of them. The other day I went way out on the limb and said "Eric, can you go downstairs and get me a cup of juice?" I waited, wondering if he would ever return, and moments later he appeared so proud with my drink in his hand, I ran down and asked my husband if he directed or helped him, he said he didn't even know what he was doing and watched him get the cup of juice and leave and knew it must have been for me because Eric will only drink water. How's that!!!

If I say Halleluia, it's not enough, if I cry to the Lord with thanksgiving, it is not enough, if I try to explain how it is changing not only my children's lives but the whole families as well, I could not do it adequately. So much time effort and money has gone into my kids, especially my son, which was actually the easy part, the disappointment at failed therapies at times seemed to much to bear, I know mothers can relate to this feeling. This hopelessness. But I am more vocal now then the first time because, I wanted to be sure. I did not want to have some moms spend a fortune and a great portion of their heart on another failed treatment. I was cautious, but excited the first time around. I am anxiously awaiting a future now that I once only dreaded. The next thing I'd like to say is that I am trying to arrange less expensive treatments for moms who can't afford the high cost of HBOT. The chambers without the hoods like the one we have gone to in San Diego are the easiest and so my sister spoke to a mobile unit that is like the one we go to. I live near Galena Illinois. My thoughts are, because this type of chamber can hold either 4 or maybe his new one is 6 I can't remember right now, I figured moms could split the costs of treatments. There are many resort homes for rent in Galena, which have up to 8 bedrooms. My sister and I are going to arrange for the chamber to come here in July sometime and would arrange everything for moms and kids to stay in a house, where the chamber would be housed for 20 days, get the treatments and split the costs of everything. that way, not only could some do it sooner, but more frequently as well. Galena is 15 miles from Dubuque Iowa, to give moms an idea of where we're at. We have one family already joining and would very much like to help out others as well.
Thank you for networking through your website. Sincerely,
Michelle Divino Email: divino@aeroinc.net

Christian H. was a happy healthy baby boy weighing in at a whopping 11lbs 9 oz at birth. We thought he was going to walk himself down to the nurses station!!! He was an answer to prayer for Mark and I, as well as his two sisters, Peyton and Brooke. Christian's first year of life was absolutely normal. He hit each and every milestone along the way. It wasn't until his second year that something went awry. At around 18 months of age, Christian stopped progressing the way children normally do at that age. Then, he slowly began to regress, losing skills he had previously acquired. He lost all of the language he already had to that point (10-12 words), lost all eye contact, stopped socializing with everyone around him, and began to display very odd and repetitive behaviors. Sound familiar? He was eventually diagnosed at Emory Autism Resource Center in Atlanta, GA, with moderate to severe DSM-IV classic autism at 2 ˝ yrs old.

By the grace of God, there was a DAN (Defeat Autism Now) Conference scheduled the very next month in Atlanta, which was only an hour away from us at the time. It was at this conference that I learned that there was a lot that could be done biologically to help kids with this regressive form of autism that is so prevalent today. I was open minded enough to listen, and then began to research on my own. The journey began. Initially, we put Christian on a gluten free/casein free diet and that made a huge difference. After a withdrawal period that lasted about a week, he suddenly became aware of the world around him. The next biological intervention we tried consisted of various supplements that were recommended at the conference (DMG, B6, Magnesium, etc.). Christian couldn't tolerate too many of the supplements we gave him. They would make him very stimmy, so we just kept him on the ones he could tolerate. As a mother, I felt and still feel like I'm racing against a giant clock trying to save my child from the jaws of this dreaded disorder. Next, we tried several interventions at once, which is not recommended, but I let my sense of urgency get the best of me. We tried NAET allergy elimination treatments, IV secretin, and chelation therapy, none of which seemed to be the "magic bullet" for Christian, like they have been for other children. From there, we decided to go with one of the most invasive biological interventions - IVIG. This did seem to help Christian quite a bit, and we still continue to do monthly infusions. I believe that some of the previously mentioned interventions may have laid the ground work for the one that has been the "magic bullet" for Chrisian - Hyperbaric Oxygen.

We began hyperbaric oxygen (100% oxygen administered under pressure) in October of 2002 in Santa Monica, and recently finished Christian's fortieth treatment. We are now taking a break, and will start back up in a couple of months. We have seen significant changes in Christian since the first week of treatments. After his first week, Mark and I both noticed significant improvement in his sustained eye contact. Also during that first week, Christian had his first ever formed stool. This is extremely significant. No other intervention we've tried has addressed this issue. And the normal stools have continued to date. Christian's ability to focus while on task and his mental clarity have increased since his second week of treatments, and have steadily progressed since then. Scores in his in home ABA therapy program have increased across the board, and he consistently receives check pluses (and even some double check pluses!) for his compliance during therapy. Prior to HBOT his scores were inconsistent. He has recently began sight reading and is progressing faster than he ever has in any other program. We continued to do Christian's oxygen treatments during the winter break, and as a result there was no regression noted in any of his ABA programs despite the fact that no ABA therapy was conducted at that time. This was definitely not the case previously. If Christian took as little as a week off from ABA, we would see regression in most of his programs. And lastly, I can't help but include comments from some of his therapists. Each of them have commented on his ability to focus and willingness to work since starting oxygen therapy. At Christian's last clinic meeting, he was so alert and compliant that the woman who runs his program suggested that we all go up to Santa Monica for some oxygen!!! I don't believe that hyperbaric oxygen is the magic bullet for every child with autism, but I do believe that almost every child with autism could benefit in some way from it. For Christian, it seems to address some of his specific issues so we knew we had to at least try it. Even if he only made a 5% gain, it would be worth it. We'd be that much closer to complete recovery. Hyperbaric Oxygen is, in my opinion, one of the interventions that couldn't hurt and may help tremendously so the risk is minimal. As Dr. Harch continues to treat children with autism, they are consistently responding to the oxygen therapy and I believe that there will be more information available at these autism conferences so that more parents will be willing to try it.

In NeuroHBOT@yahoogroups.com, "baltostrength" > wrote: > > Hi Folks: For all you number lovers out there, I wanted to share some great results with you about my 2 kids with autism and HBOT. They recieved 80 hours in July and August at Miracle Mountain, NC. My 3 year old daughter dropped nearly 50 points from 84 to 36 on the ATEC, Autism treatment evaluation Checklist. She improved in all 4 areas, came down 11 points in speech and language, 9 points in socialability, 10 points in cognitive/sensory awareness and 8 in Health, Physical and behavior. My 6 year old son went down 5 points from 15 to 10. His scored came down in sociability and health. We are now chelating them hoping to drop those scores even further. The kids are still on very restricitive diets and we are piling on the therapy to jump on this improvement. I will keep you posted. Holly mom to Ben and Claudia FYI. We have been following Andy Cutler's protocal described in the files in the yahoo group autism_mercury. We are now into our 3rd year with Ben and year 2 for Claudia. We use oral DMSA and ALA administered every 3-4 hours round the clock for 72 hours then off for 4 days and then on for 3 days. Hope this helps. Holly, "baltostrength"