Improving Safety and Reducing Risk after Tragic Accidents
Air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation ever invented. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has saved incalculable numbers of lives when used for wound healing, decompression sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning, near-drowning, burns, BLAST injury, traumatic brain injury, diabetic foot ulcers, sepsis, and amputation avoidance, arresting suicidal ideation, and healing brain wounds in deployed Navy pilots.
It’s superstition to believe that “deaths come in 3s.” But this week’s air collision over Washington DC, another in Philadelphia, coupled with a hyperbaric oxygen fire that killed a five year old boy in Troy, Michigan, are tragic examples of the risk of living while using technology to enhance our lives. Communities are in shock and mourning, as are we, seeking answers and ways to increase safety.
Such accidents, while tragic, are extremely rare. However, in our grief, we must resolve to do better. And we will. Yet, we must remember there are numerous other human activities which are many times more dangerous than flying or using HBOT. Consider this chart:
Cause of Death | Odds of Dying |
Heart Disease. | 1 in 6 |
Cancer | 1 in 7 |
Deaths in Hospitals due to medical errors | Between 25,000 and 250,000 per year |
Accidental Opioid Overdose | 1 in 58 |
Guns (all events) | 1 in 89 |
Suicide | 1 in 91 |
Service Member Suicides | ~6,400/year, over 151,000 since 9/11 |
Motor Vehicle Crashes | 1 in 93 |
Falls | 1 in 98 |
Cataclysmic storms |
1 in 20,098 |
Dog Attacks |
1 in 53,843 |
Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber |
1 in every 305,000 treatments |
accidents |
less than 2 per year |
Aircraft accidents |
1 in 7.9 Million boardings |
According to the FAA, there is only a 0.007 percent of flights encountering a problem. For hyperbaric oxygen therapy patients, there is less than 0.0008819 percent chance of an accident. Put another way, total fatalities due to aviation accidents since 1970 is 83,772. Total deaths due to worldwide accidents in HBOT clinical chambers is 216 over 88 years, less than ten in the US. Extremely rare, in short.
A related set of statistics provides further perspective. Total deaths due to medical errors according to a 2017 study is over 250,000 every year. [Competing evidence points to ~25,000 avoidable deaths, an adverse event rate of 3.7 events per 100 admissions, of which 28% were judged to have been caused by negligence; 16% led to death or permanent disability.] Either number is an astonishing statistic, but people keep going into hospitals for care.
Life is risky. Getting sick can be very risky. For example, in one six-year period, there were 2,211 anesthesia-related deaths in medical settings. In one recent ten year period, there were 7,049 deaths due to bicycle accidents, accounting for 2.2% of total traffic fatalities in 2021. But people accept the risk of undergoing operations and riding bikes.
One thing we know for certain in both medicine and aviation is that accidents lead to extensive analysis of safety procedures, improved training, upgrades to technology, and improved safety. This close to both accidents in DC and Troy Michigan, it is premature to ascribe blame or know the causes. But with history on our side, it is safe to say that equipment failure in either case is less of a probability than pilot error or safety violations.
In short, technology is less likely to be at fault than the bad luck of a human making a mistake. Neither flying nor HBOT treatments will cease, and each will be made safer as a result of improving our attention to safety for both man and machines.
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The TreatNOW Mission is ending service member suicides. Along the way, we have learned that we can end suicidal ideation, help end symptoms of PTSD, get patients off most of their drugs, and heal brain wounds to end the effects of Concussion, BLAST injury, mild TBI Persistent Post Concussive Syndrome, and polytrauma from AHI and Burn Pits. No Veteran or civilian has ever been killed while undergoing HBOT treatment for TBI/PTSD.
Information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.