Why We Do What We Do?
Hi, my name is Chris and I am the Managing Director of Portable Hyperbaric Chambers Australia.
And I would like to share with you my story behind the company I started, and the reason why I am so passionate in making portable hyperbaric chambers accessible and affordable for every Australian to own.
It all began back in 2009 when I almost lost my two month old son, Elijah. It happened one afternoon when my wife, Joy, went to check on him sleeping in his cot and found he had stopped breathing. Elijah was having an episode of SIDS. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
In a panic she called the emergency line and Elijah was rushed by ambulance to the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. On arrival he was raced into surgery where he was immediately placed into an induced coma. A state he would remain in for the next 3 months.
When the doctors finally brought him out of his deep sleep the news to follow was devastating. Our son had suffered irreversible brain damage and there was nothing they could do.
It was a challenging time for both Joy and I but nothing compared to what little Elijah was going through.
Suffering from severe spasticity, advanced developmental delays, cerebral palsy amongst other conditions. However, of all the diagnosis’s we were given that day by Australia’s leading paediatric neurologists the one which broke my heart was to hear he had lost his sight. Elijah was blind.
I simply refused to accept what we were being told that day and I set out to find a solution that would enable us to help our sons damaged brain repair.
After feverishly searching the internet for an answer I came across something called hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I was amazed to hear about the results people were having from simply using hyperbaric chambers.
Excited by what I had learned I immediately began to investigate how I could get my hands on the best and most advanced hyperbaric chamber available. Much to my dismay, no hyperbaric facility in Australia would treat Elijah, and where we could take him for treatment, we were quoted $25,000 for just three months. After endless hours of research on the internet and meeting people I knew our son would need a whole lot more than just three months of treatment.
As a parent you would give anything to help your child, but $25,000 every three months was impossible for our family to afford.
So began our journey to find a hyperbaric chamber that could actually give the results that researchers around the world were finding AND just as important, one that was affordable and we could use on a daily basis. But yet again we were left with disappointment. No one in Australia supplied them. Frustrated I turned to an overseas company I found online and paid $7,000 for what I was lead to believe would deliver both the pressures and oxygen levels we needed. But it failed miserably. With no other option available the only thing left for me to do was to design my own.
After a long and hard two years of research and development in the spare bedroom of our home I finally had a portable hyperbaric chamber I knew was going to do the job needed to get the results we wanted.
When the time came for Elijah to take that first ‘Dive’ Joy joined him inside to help calm and soothe him. But there was no need, he loved it. Equipped with his iPad and other activities we had put in there to amuse him, not once did he refuse or show any signs of distress.
We sent him down four meters below sea level that day and saturated his little body with 97% of life-giving oxygen, delivered in a very special way.
The results we saw were gradual and subtle. Initially he was sleeping better and his behavior improved. He seemed to be more peaceful and his muscles didn’t ache or hurt as before. Slowly and incredibly he began to mend and heal.
Elijah improved in every aspect and like some miracle he began walking and talking almost like any other little boy his age. All the things they said he would never do again, he started to do one by one.
And if you are wondering, YES he also has his eye sight back! Yes, that’s right, he is seeing! If you ever get to meet him, you would think that he is a normal little boy.
After seeing the amazing results with our son, there was only one thing left for me to do…quit my job…which I did. And so it was that Portable Hyperbaric Chambers Australia was born.
In the same year I took the very chamber that I had designed for little Elijah, named it the Salus36 and began full scale production, manufacturing 30,000 units a year. It is now the biggest selling Portable Hyperbaric Chamber in today’s market and is sold worldwide.
Throughout this whole amazing journey, I have always felt there would come a time when I would help others help themselves and their loved ones.
Sincerely
Chris Williams.
Owner & Managing Director
Our Salus36 Portable Hyperbaric Chambers deliver oxygen at a safe and effective 1.35 ATA. With external and internal gauges, it’s easy to see what pressure the chamber is operating at.
If you want to deal with an Australian company, have the protection of our industry-leading 3-year warranty and simply want the best chamber money can buy, look no further.
