Mr. Secretary. With your background, surely you understand the implications of so many untreated brain wounds on force readiness, family unity, and mental health. It’s a good time to appeal to you to utilize the Mission Act to enforce the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for TBI/PTSD/Concussion

1. We face an epidemic of suicide, and brain-related wounds afflicting service members’ mental and physical health. Millions of civilians, athletes, fire, rescue, first responders are also affected. The Concussion/CTE crisis is trickling down to high schools. 2. Billions of $$$ are being spent on research and unproven even hurtful drugs and devices that exacerbate the problems in too many cases. Veteran deaths through prescribed overdoses are increasing. 3. DOD/VA/Army conducted HBOT studies producing DATA that show HBOT works: it is safe and effective. 4. Business-as-usual protocols negatively affect over 800,000 post-9/11 wounded [and an equal number of Vietnam veterans] and their families while BILLIONS of $$$ are expended on drugs and fruitless psychological and other unproven interventions. Research with new drugs, LSD and psychotropics continues. 5. The cost to the wounded: interminable wait times, mis-diagnoses, drugs and semi-permanent welfare status, families in crises, wives with secondary TBI/PTSD, degraded quality of life. 6. The cost to the nation: 20+ suicides a day, hollowing out of Special Operations forces, $60,000 cost/per year for each untreated brain injury, and corrosive effects of wounded who are told: “There is no treatment to help you, only psychopharmacology and cognitive psychotherapy.” The NFL and the NCAA brag of a Protocol that does nothing to heal the wound to the brain. It is all about “watchful waiting,” rest, reaching milestones and hoping symptoms go away. 8. Yet an active treatment does exist: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy when used by the TreatNOW Coalition and multiple clinics across the US and world. We have peer-reviewed positive scientific and clinical evidence in over 6,100 cases that HBOT helps heal wounded brains and returns patients to a life denied them by DOD/VA/Army that will not talk about, or even use or pay for HBOT treatment for TBI/PTSD/PCS/Concussion. The Mission Act is useful to brain wounded service members only when you demand that it be used to pay for treaments in clinics that provide the service that the VA cannot and will not.

These videos give more insight into successes and science:

Joe Namath, football http://tinyurl.com/kflu9up MSGT Scott Roessler [Ranger] http://tinyurl.com/hf3czmw Joe Delamielleure (Buffalo Bills) http://tinyurl.com/m5q8ued GnySgt Rotenberry & wife http://tinyurl.com/gpzpxgy MAJ Ben Richards http://tinyurl.com/jts2jy3 CAPT Smotherman/Rep John Bennett http://tinyurl.com/lvcf22r The Honorable Patt Maney (BG, USA) http://tinyurl.com/m97x4jp Brian Fleury – Hockey Player http://tinyurl.com/hefs478 Robin Read, Stroke Patient http://tinyurl.com/gv2zpkl Latest Ben Richards video http://tinyurl.com/hd9ahcd Roy Jefferson https://bit.ly/2MDg1JV Dr Daphne Denham on Concussion https://tinyurl.com/ybldktqn.

The TreatNOW Coalition is primarily veterans working pro bono to stop the suicide epidemic and restore the brain injured to a quality of life denied them by conventional approaches to concussions and brain injuries.

The TreatNOW Coalition is supported by numerous clinics and physicians worldwide. The Coalition has built a collaborative network among civilian Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)-capable clinics which have, on a largely pro bono basis, successfully treated over 6,100 TBI/PTSD Veteran and civilian casualties. Using HBOT and a variety of safe and effective, alternative therapies, clinicians are actively treating and helping to heal underlying brain damage that is ignored with current, passive “watchful waiting” and drug-based TBI/PTSD/Concussion protocols. And patients are able to quit taking most of their drugs. Based on ten years of data, some believe that HBOT is a cure for suicidal ideation.

TreatNOW has had dramatic, life-altering success returning each of the fully-treated patients to a quality of life far beyond what they could receive from traditional or DOD medicine. A significant number were returned to active military duty. Under TreatNOW, this scientific work will continue to give hope to the hundreds of thousands of brain-injured patients with TBI/Concussion and/or PTSD. Neither service members or athletes or citizens have to settle for a “new normal” along with a life of addictive dependence on prescribed drugs that come with warnings against suicidal risk. This is not the Quality of Life they deserve nor what safe and effective evidence-based medicine can provide for them.

The TreatNOW civilian research and treatment effort to this point has been largely self-funded. It has concluded an observational study of over 30 patients, all treated successfully. This scientific evidence demonstrates once again the role of hyperbaric oxygen in active treatment of wounds to the brain, restoring function and brain health to wounded who were told they would have to settle for a “new normal,” in effect a degraded quality of life.

The TreatNOW Mission is to immediately and urgently identify and treat veterans and others suffering from Concussion/TBI/PTSD,and to alleviate pain and withdrawal symptoms for substance abusers. The TreatNOW Goal is to ensure that over 800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan brain injured veterans and active duty service members, along with all citizens, get insured access to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and other proven alternative medical treatments for their Invisible Wounds. But immediate compassionate care is needed for the most at-risk wounded veterans. Currently, these steps forward will likely come only from the private sector. With funding from the Mission Act, the Coalition’s assistance could lead to treatment of Reserve and National Guard servicemen and women in states who have started their own treatment programs, beginning now.

http://www.treatnow.org