Oscar’s story was featured in the HyperMED February ’07 newsletter – his continuing success is a miracle in the making! 

‘We have just completed our fifth visit back to Melbourne from New Zealand; for another 48 hours of Hyperbaric Oxygenation. This time we were lucky enough for Oscar to use the Lokomat for an hour a day (10 hours all together.) I think he is probably the smallest child to be on the Lokomat which features the new ‘Pediatric legs’. Again Oscar has responded with massive improvements during this 2-weeks of intensive treatments; no doubt he will continue to strive when we arrive back home.  

Oscar responds amazingly each time he attends for HBOT but on this occasion even the first day of 4 hours HBOT and 1 hour of Lokomat we witnessed improvement. Oscar suddenly started to crawl a lot faster and appeared to have instantly more control! Each day we witnessed another change and overall improvement - by the end of the first week Oscar was standing himself up and very soon anything he could grab - tables, chairs, his bed, our hands, his buggy and any body else close by! Not only was he standing himself up but he was controlling his balance much better.  

We have also observed some amazing changes to his legs. Prior to the Lokomat Oscar’s legs were constantly in a “frog like” position and when he attempted to crawl his hips were not strong enough and he would simply rock of fall flat. When Oscar started on the Lokomat his hips were very stiff; Dr Hooper sets the leg cuffs to enable the motion to reinforce the correct function and within such a short time his legs began to relax and respond. Oscar can now straighten his legs which has enabled him to control his pelvis and crawl!!  

During and after each intensive block of HBOT Oscar’s mental capacity improves – however this time around he is much more alert; looking around, interacting with everyone and he notices everything! We especially have noticed that he is watching TV and taking a great liking to it whereas before he would not have known it existed. His eating has also improved; he is not choking on his food nearly as much as before; his is now chewing and swallowing after he has chewed.

All of this in only 2-weeks! We are constantly amazed and overwhelmed. I am very excited to continue to watch Oscar grow and have huge hope that this is only the beginning of a lot more improvement during the next few months before we come back again.

Oscar William Martin-Pawson (NZ) - Severe Cerebral Palsy

(HyperMED February 2007 Newsletter) 

‘Oscar was born on the 19^th February 2005, we were absolutely thrilled with the arrival of our perfect little boy. He was gorgeous and everything we had expected and some. The evening of his first day I telephoned my mother in the middle of the night, to say that I was having trouble feeding him. He choked during and after his feeds and I was terrified that he was dying. Mum reassured me, as she always did and told me to tell the midwives (who were our primary care givers) to come and help during the feed and to ring the bell if he choked. I did this and was reassured by them that everything was perfectly normal and ‘run of the mill’. Blissfully ignorant I simply accepted Oscar as he was.  

As I was a young mother I was still living at home with my parents the major problem we had was feeding. I was determined to give my baby the best possible start in life and wanted desperately to breast feed him for at least the first year. Oscar presented with an extremely strong and unrelenting back arch. He was also excessively stiff and rigid and was, I now understand, unable to relax and snuggle in as other babies do. It was impossible for me to achieve this without assistance. I would attempt to encourage Oscar to latch and once and/or if this was achieved Mum would hold him at my breast for as long as possible.  We collectively held our breath whenever he latched and suckled, timing every success and congratulating ourselves if we were able to keep him relaxed and attached for 2 minutes at a time. Consequently every feed took approximately two hours (day or night). Following every minor success at the breast I would express for a further hour while Mum feed Oscar a bottle of expressed milk and settled him back to bed. We were exhausted but determined.  

The first alarms went off for me when Oscar was 11 days old. Oscar’s heart rate was elevated and the GP felt she could detect a heart murmur and wanted Oscar taken to hospital immediately. Now I was worried! My mother had a history of a heart murmurs and had required open heart surgery to replace heart valves. Now I was convinced that my son would be faced with this same reality. Heart murmurs, we were told, are a relatively common occurrence in babies and can be caused by many factors. Often a baby will have a heart murmur one day and it is gone the next. More than likely the symptoms Oscar was experiencing were the result of reflux again a common and very treatable condition that he would most likely grow out of over time.  

It was during this initial hospital admission that she verbalized her belief that there was something seriously amiss with Oscar. She tried desperately to get the doctors to undertake more extensive testing. She believed he had Cerebral Palsy or a Syndrome of some sort. I was in denial and I simply could not cope with the concept that my beautiful baby could be anything less than perfect. The reality is he isn’t. If I am honest I still struggle with it at times but whenever I really reflect on him and all his glorious “specialness”, I know this is a fact. Nonetheless at the time I was furious with my mother. She was tormented and heartbroken by the fear that she was right in her beliefs and equally tormented that she may have been wrong and that she may have caused me pain and anxiety without good reason.  

On return from the hospital everything continued. Nightmarish feeding times, Oscar chocking and going blue and us totally exhausted. At 17 days of age our anxieties around Oscar’s continued colour changes reached the point that we returned to the GP for another examination. The doctor shared our concerns and felt that further testing was required. He would be examined by the top pediatric cardiologist and undergo a variety of tests to ascertain what was causing the symptoms we were describing. Amazingly, in fact miraculously, by the following morning everything was fixed!!! A new team of doctors came to examine Oscar, including the top hospital pediatrician and his merry band of “yes men”. This group I am sad but not reluctant to say was a team of arrogant individuals, who treated me as if IQ was in some way directly linked to my age and “solo mother” status. Obviously I was over reacting and completely devoid of all intellectual capacity. I was simply too young and foolish to realize that my son had an obvious case of reflux. This condition would be quite treatable and eventually curable. None of this particular team of doctors had any concerns about Oscar’s back arching or rigidity. The reflux medication had made no significant difference to his presentation. He still regularly experienced colour change episodes, still appeared to have times when he was unaware of his surroundings, arched his back and struggled with feeding. By this time I had experienced three bouts of mastitis, probably due to the fact that Oscar could not suckle long enough. On one occasion I had required IV antibiotics to treat the disorder and on reflection I was exhausted and unwell for the majority of his first three months of life. While I adored him it would not be an exaggeration to say that Oscar’s arrival into my world had proved considerably more difficult than I had anticipated. 

At his outpatients appointment Oscar was arching his back, as he did, to the point where only the top of his head and his heals remained on the bed. These arching events had been witnessed by numerous doctors and nurses previously but this was the first time a doctor showed any concern about it. He asked us if this happened often, which it did, almost constantly. He then asked if we would object to him consulting the pediatric neurologist to see what he thought of this as he was not confident that this was merely a symptom of reflux…..FINALLY!!!  

The neurologist examined Oscar and said he would like to do more testing with Oscar but that he believed he had Cerebral Palsy. Eventually the diagnosis - Cerebral Palsy and his level of impairment as severe. I was devastated and relieved at the same time. Finally someone was taking us seriously and finally we might get some help. The doctor had been unable to give us any clear indication of what this diagnosis would mean for Oscar. Cerebral Palsy is a generalized diagnosis with non-specific outcomes. Some people with the diagnosis are only mildly affected; they may have a limp or limited use of one or two limbs. Others are so severely affected that they are unable to walk, talk or even eat independently. There was no way of telling where Oscar was on this spectrum other than to say that he appeared to be more at the severe end of the scale. 

With a diagnosis finally verbalized my mother searched for a solution or anything that could offer us some hope. She turned to the internet and Googled ….”Alternative Therapies for Cerebral Palsy”. The first on the list was “Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy”.  Having found the site she asked my father to investigate the merits of the therapy and from there a new beginning for our family and most particularly Oscar was born. Dad read everything he could about the therapy, testimonials, studies anything he could find. He started emailing people all over the word and within a short period of time he was talking to Dr. Mal Hooper in Melbourne. From there Mum and Dad decided that we had nothing to loose in trying this treatment. There were minimal side affects and if the testimonials were proven to be right there was a good chance that Oscar’s quality of life could be greatly improved. They wanted to book the treatment and get on with it as soon as could be achieved. To be honest I was a little reluctant at first to undertake the therapy I had read a critics website which said that their was a possibility the treatment could cause blindness. I felt that Oscar had enough to contend with in his life and the last thing he needed was blindness to add to the list. I could not have lived with myself if I had contributed in any way to worsening his diagnosis. Further to this I knew the treatment was not cheap. I could not afford it and I did not want my parents to pay for it and me to feel beholden to them for the rest of my life. I think all of this was worsened by the fact that my relationship with Jason had suffered under the strain of everything and at that time we were separated. I felt that all the responsibility was on me and I felt very alone. But finally it was agreed that we would give it a go. 

Dad collated all Oscar’s medical records and test results and sent them off to Melbourne for Dr Hooper to determine if there was anything he could help with and the course of therapy required. Before long we were heading to Melbourne for our first 5 week stint of treatment which began on the 5^th December 2005 at 8.30am. Mum tells me that she and Dad had a lot of negative feedback from people saying they thought it was risky to give me false hope. But they believed that even false hope was better than no hope at all, so they pushed ahead with it.  

The first 100 hrs of treatment were exhausting and this was made more difficult by the fact that we were away from home, friends and family. However the people at the hotel we stayed at “Pacific International on Exhibition St” were fantastic to us as were Mal, Karen and Alan at the clinic. Oscar coped with the treatment extremely well and before the end of that first block we noticed that he was more alert, interactive and relaxed. His arching had greatly reduced and he could open and shut his hands and bring his arms more easily to the centre line of his body.  One day, while on the tram, Oscar was standing on my knee. He lost his balance and grabbed for the rail to correct himself. This was an amazingly significant achievement for him and hugely exciting for us and of course I cried. As the first block neared the end the changes in Oscar seemed to be coming rapidly. He would grab for things off the table when we were out to dinner. He started to attempt to make noises and seemed more able to focus on us or movements around him. He was becoming connected to our world and seemed to be becoming interested in what was going on.  

On our return home to our house Oscar laughed and laughed…He knew he was home, where he was and he recognized people as familiar. This was sheer delight for us and the best Christmas present ever. He soon learnt to transfer items from one hand to the other, he could bring things to his mouth and yes he could smile and laugh. Further to all this he continued to become stronger and more able to hold himself straight in his high chair and buggy. Maybe these things don’t sound like much but; these were huge achievements for Oscar and tremendous rewards for us. Nonetheless the most important thing was that our wee man was progressing in a way that far exceeded our expectations and most significantly the neurologist’s expectations. He could not believe the progress Oscar had made but, as is often the case with conventional doctors, he would not acknowledge that the progress he saw was the result of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. He had no explanation as to what else would have contributed to this progress but he remained somewhat neutral and non-committal about the therapy.  

I finally agreed to allow him to receive his meningitis vaccination in line with the current protocols in New Zealand. Tragically the day after this vaccination Oscar had his first Tonic-Clonic seizure. He was admitted to hospital and over the following 24hrs he experienced 12 seizures with six of these progressing to status epilepticus, requiring medication to control them and all 12 requiring resuscitation. Oscar was critically ill and remained in intensive care for 48hrs and in hospital for a further three days after that. 

In April 2006 we returned to Melbourne for a further 50 hrs of treatment. After this series of treatments Oscar’s balance and torso strength improved. It sounds a little pathetic now but he could sit for up to 12 seconds. This gave us great hope that maybe he would sit independently and hopefully stand and walk one day. It was on this occasion that Oscar found his feet!!!! And oh how he loved them!!! They became his favorite toy and best friend for the next six months. Oscar started to recognize people as being different individuals. He started to have different reactions for different people. He continued to be increasingly relaxed and flexible and more stable in the way he could hold himself.  

In the weeks and months following this lot of treatment we feel Oscar has made the most amazing progress. The choking episodes were all but eliminated. He began eating real food that required chewing. He could get up on to all fours in the crawling position, sit for longer periods of time and had even started to try desperately to get himself from the crawling to sitting position. Oscar’s interaction with others became spontaneous and relaxed and he developed a real little personality of his own. So much was happening for Oscar over these months that it is difficult to recall them all. He could hold his own bottle, eat finger foods, he began to verbalize using a variety of sounds and he could cry and giggle spontaneously. Oscar could sit in a high chair, entertain himself and actually play.  

Oscar has just completed his 4^th visit to the clinic and has now received a further 48hrs treatment. This totals 198hrs of therapy for him. It appears to us that the treatment has a cumulative effect as during this visit his progress has been noticeable from day one. When we left New Zealand two weeks ago Oscar could just get himself from the crawling to sitting position. Now he can do this with the greatest of ease and while he is sitting he can twist around and alter his position. He can be naughty, throwing tantrums when he does not get his own way and actually screaming with rage. He is so close to crawling now that I am sure he will be away in the next month or so. He can move his hands and knees forward in a rather uncoordinated and clumsy fashion and all that is required is for his to coordinate this movements and he will be off. He is playing with real purpose; he can sit independently in the bath and stably sit on the floor to be fed. He is verbalizing far more and imitating the movements we make with our mouths in an attempt to talk. He is starting to imitate our movements in that he is trying to wave. He is attempting to pull himself up on furniture although this usually results in a tumble. Thank you! Lucy’