Why is Virginia Masons program special?
Virginia Mason’s Center for Hyperbaric Medicine has been in existence since 1969. It is the only 24-hour, critical care, multi-person chamber, non-private, patient-care based hyperbaric center in a five-state region. The Center for Hyperbaric Medicine also is the regional coordinating center for the Divers Alert Network. In addition to providing patient care, Virginia Mason doctors promote illness prevention through public education. Over the past few years, Center for Hyperbaric Medicine publications in the medical literature have described common causes of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, in an attempt to educate the public about avoidable sources of poisoning (riding in the back of pickup trucks, indoor use of charcoal briquettes, and certain recreational boating activities). Ongoing work in the area of carbon monoxide poisoning is attempting to define better ways to identify the poisoned patient and the optimal hyperbaric treatment for the disease. Recently, the Center for Hyp
