• Children's Center

    Hyperbaric healing for Skyler

"To collaborate with the hyperbaric oxygen team, was just a really fantastic resource to have," says Dr. Shelagh Cofer after finding an innovative way to heal a difficult wound for a young patient named Skyler.

"Skyler's was an interesting case, because her condition isn’t necessarily on the list of things that we treat typically," says Dr. Paul Claus, medical director for Mayo Clinic's Hyperbaric and Altitude Medicine Program. Born out of a need to decompress divers who had been too deep too long, and had absorbed too much nitrogen into their bloodstream, the therapy now is often used to treat carbon monoxide poisoning and chronic wounds that refuse to heal.

For Dr. Cofer, a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist, and a surgeon, using it was a first. "For me, it was overwhelming to hear what her mom was saying and how it had so positively impacted Skyler's life," she says. Dennis Douda reports for the Mayo Clinic News Network.

Watch: Hyperbaric healing for Skyler

Journalists: A broadcast-quality video package (2:06) is in the downloads. Read the script