In 2001, 11 years after my discovery with the divers, my wife and I adopted three year old Derek from Romania where he had lived in an orphanage since his birth. As depicted so many times on television, the Romanian facility in which he had been institutionalized was severely understaffed, over-populated, filthy, and lacked resources for improvement. As a result of his living situation and lack of stimulation we expected some developmental and cognitive delays. We were assured by the Romanian orphanage personnel, however, that Derek was "normal" and would quickly catch up to his peers once placed in a loving home with proper attention and nutrition.

When Derek arrived in the United States, a week before his third birthday, he spoke nothing more than animal-like grunts, could barely walk without falling, and was malnourished and underweight. On his third birthday he weighed merely 21 pounds. (Hardly "normal" according to any standard.) In spite of all the love, attention, and nutrition we could offer him, months passed and Derek's progress remained limited. It soon became obvious to me that Derek's difficulties were due to something other than his early childhood deprivations. I began to suspect that Derek's delays were more likely due to some form of early childhood traumatic brain injury.

Like so many of my patients and their parents, Derek, my wife, & I went through what seemed like an endless progression of tests and studies only to be told what we already knew, "Derek is severely delayed." Despite the obvious protein malnutrition and other organic insults, he was classified as "nervous and mental disorder" by our medical insurance, thus not eligible for medical benefits. Like many other neurologically impaired children, MRI of his brain was normal; however, SPECT was not. Additionally, we were told, "Nothing can be done for him. We will just have to wait to see how he develops and grows over time."

At that point, I began Derek's hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments. Within one month of treating him twice a day, Derek's speech improved dramatically. Words never spoken before seemed to fly out of his mouth without hesitation or struggle. Additionally his problem-solving skills also seemed to improve. It was amazing. My son was now my patient and he was improving.

Before we adopted Derek, after working with brain-damaged children every day, I would go home & thank God for the health of my five (yes, five!) other children. And now, with Derek in our family, I also thank God for hyperbarics. Hyperbarics has very much impacted my life; no longer only professionally, but now & more importantly, personally as well.

Our family celebrates his advancements daily. This is the greatest gift of all; this is what I hope to give to my patients and their families.