As disaster-prone British yachtsman Tony Bullimore was going into Fremantle Hospital’s $1 m. hyperbaric chamber for the third time to force oxygen into the damaged cells of his feet, a relieved Dr. Harry Oxer, in charge of the high-tech unit, said: ‘There is no sign of gangrene.’
Gangrene is the destruction of tissue due to loss of blood circulation, allowing infection to decay and kill tissue. The 56-year-old sailor suffered only frostbite to his hands and feet in the 90 hours he spent lying in his flooded, upturned yacht.
As the Australian frigate ‘Adelaide’ brought him back to the mainland the commanding officer, Capt. Raydon Gates, said Bullimore was "running on adrenalin" and the real extent of his injuries to fingers and toes were only just beginning to be realised. Capt. Gates said the veteran yachtsman had suffered more than the rescued French yachtsman, Thierry Dubois. His exposure to the elements was greater and he had been immobile for a long time before being rescued.
After he saw his patient, Dr. Oxer explained that the 105-minute sessions Bullimore would spend in the steel chamber would help cure his ‘trench foot’ condition, an injury caused by severe cold as he lay in two-degree Antarctic waters in a makeshift hammock. ‘When you get really cold, and perpetually so, the blood vessels in our skin tend to close down to conserve heat.
‘If they close down for a long time, and some of the deeper vessels also close down, this affects the blood flow. The blood starts to get sludgy and eventually the vessels just clog up. Therefore the tissues farthest from the heart - the feet - begin to not get enough oxygen. They become swollen and inflamed and leak fluid, showing they have been deprived of oxygen. As you re-warm them the condition worsens for a while; the flow-through is starting again. All the little cells of the blood tend to stick to the sides of the vessels and clog them up. We get oxygen to the sites and help them come back to life again.’
Dr. Oxer said Tony Bullimore went into the steel chamber for the third time in good spirits. ‘He is a cheery character; a wonderfully ebullient man.’
The high steel chamber accommodates four patients at a time with a skilled nursing attendant who remains there to supervise the oxygen doses and monitor reactions. Bullimore lies on a large, comfortable chair, with a footstool. An individual oxygen tent is fitted over his head, sealed with a soft rubber collar. He can see through it to watch television or read a book; or talk or sleep. When air is pumped into the chamber to double normal atmospheric pressure, his ears may "pop" as they do in a descending aircraft.
‘You also feel a bit warm - like a bicycle pump becomes when you pump it hard - otherwise you feel normal.’ Closed-circuit television also monitors the patient’s reaction. ‘When the patient speaks,’ said Dr. Oxer, ‘his voice sounds a little odd because of the denseness of the air.’
When Tony Bullimore hobbled off the ‘Adelaide’ he had little feeling in his feet. ‘At the moment he is getting a bit of pain in them, because the feeling is coming back. We have no fear that he is likely to develop gangrene.’
The Fremantle Hospital chamber, entered by a large steel door, with distribution pipes inside, has carried out 15,000 treatments since it was installed seven years ago. It operates twice a day helping divers with the bends, or patients - like diabetics - with wounds or ulcers that have refused to heal. It has only had one frostbite patient previously, a sailor who lost some of his toes. Cancer patients who have had their tissues damaged by radiotherapy aimed at killing their tumours may have difficulty with wounds that will not heal, said Dr. Oxer. Oxygen therapy forces extra oxygen into their tissues which then recover and begin to heal normally.
He said it was surprising that Britain, where he was born, has little use for hyperbaric medicine. ‘It has been thriving for 25-30 years in other countries which operate problem wound centres. There is a unit in all Australian states except the ACT. Queensland’s centre is at Townsville where it treats accident cases from waters of the Great Barrier Reef.’
Tony Bullimore’s sessions in the chamber will go on this week and his condition will be reviewed on a daily basis. ‘He is progressing,’ said Dr. Oxer, ‘but it’s not going to happen overnight.’
Cambridge-educated Dr.Oxer said his fascination with the therapeutic use of oxygen began when he flew in unpressurised aircraft during 16 years in the medical branch of the RAF. ‘You can get the bends in an unpressurised plane just as you can from diving. We had a chamber at the time and I saw how useful it could be. I decided that this was to be my work.’
He arrived in Western Australia 21 years ago, he said, and would never leave. ‘I cannot think of a more beautiful place to live.’
You may like to contact Dr. Paul Grout of the hyperbaric chamber in Hull to update your opinion of hyperbaric therapy in the UK...Whilst Freo is very good it is not a leader in these procedures, it is a follower. These procedures have existed in the UK for many years. I have first hand knowledge of both. Please mention my name when you speak to Paul, and offer my kind regards. Regards, Graham
The Bullimore Incident happened in January 1997. I got to Perth for a visit the week after he left.
At the time, the treatment he received may have been fairly radical - I do not know. I vaguely recall something about one of his toes had had to be amputated but that the rest of his digits were OK.
The question of what the hell the guy was doing 1,000nm south of Perth in such a badly-built yacht that the keel suddenly fell off it has ever been resolved as far as I know. The boat turned turtle because the keel was only held on with studs instead of bolts and it suddenly fell off.
The people in Perth (including my sister) were all LIVID about the amoount the Australian tax-payers had forked out to rescue the guy. They felt that the sponsors of Bullimore's Expedition should have re-imbursed ALL of the rescue and medical costs. They also felt that Bullimore was a complete clown to have been on such a deathtrap of a boat in the first place.
I got there believing the bloke was a hero. I found that the Perth-ites had been reading the fine print.....
Interesting, and the phrase, "but there for the sake of God go I" springs to mind. I have rescued and helped lots of peeps in the UK that have (usually) been the destiny of their own result, many with far less foresight than Bullimore. I have also spent more time with drunks, druggies, and otherwise unsociable persons than I care to count since arriving in Perth....I dont judge others, I simply offer compasion, and assistant.....
