WE must make more widely known the huge benefits of treating severe burns injuries and scarrings with HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygenation Treatment).

On page three of The Argus on October 16 there was a report on what may have been acid attacks in Hastings.

On page eight there was a further report and warning from ambulance services about treating burns injuries from firework accidents on November 5.

We have all seen the growing accounts of acid attacks in different parts of the country leaving victims with horrific facial injuries and scars.

I am a member and former trustee of the Sussex MS Centre in Southwick which is one of 60 plus centres around the UK providing HBOT (Hyperbaric medicine) to help people cope with neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis.

HBOT is a high dosage of oxygen supplied and breathed under pressure while wearing a face mask and sitting comfortably in a pressure chamber pressurised to a maximum of two atmospheres; which is equivalent to a depth of 33ft.

This treatment is simple, safe, inexpensive and without any significant side-effects.

Fireball

I recently studied a case of a young woman who was doing her Christmas shopping in a shopping centre in San Francisco, USA.

She had just handed her young son to Santa Claus in the Christmas grotto when a light aircraft crashed on to the roof of the shopping mall.

A fireball of flaming petroleum and tar cascaded down from the ceiling on to her and she suffered severe burns to her face.

Fortunately for her a Dr Paul Cianci, a former surgeon and captain in the US Navy, had been working on the treatment for burns injuries and she was given hyperbaric oxygenation treatment.

After only eight hours of hyperbaric treatment the rapid healing which occurred was remarkable.

In my opinion something must be done to alert doctors and hospitals in the UK to urgently provide hyperbaric medicine to the tragic victims of these acid attacks.

During the last months and following the horrific acid attacks around the country I have emailed several MPs to alert them to the rapid healing benefits to be gained from HBOT.

Regrettable

I am aware that MPs can only respond to people and matters of concern in their own constituencies but acid attacks are taking place in too many places around the country.

It is deeply regrettable that hyperbaric medicine is still not being used to treat burns injuries in the UK.

The ignorance of the benefits of hyperbaric medicine in the UK, and in many parts of continental Europe, is lamentable and shocking and it must be addressed.

In China there are in use today in excess of 5,000 hyperbaric pressure chambers and in Japan in excess of 1,000.

There are several thousand chambers in the USA.

In Russia perhaps 1,000 chambers.

Extraordinary

There are other developments in Europe where an extraordinary hyperbaric unit has been installed in the burns unit on the sixth floor of the General Hospital in Vienna, Austria by a Professor Harald Andel.

Sadly, In the UK NHS hospitals you will be lucky to find more than three pressure chambers.

There are some private hospitals with pressure chambers and the cost is, of course, high.

It is quite extraordinary that pressure chambers are being built in Scotland – for export.

The huge savings to the NHS in the aftercare costs resulting from hyperbaric medicine will run into many millions.

Assaults involving corrosive substances have more than doubled in England since 2012, police figures show.

Back in 2012 there were 183 reports of attacks.

In 2013 the number went up to 238 and then 285 the following year.

In 2015 the number of reported attacks stood at 460 before rising again to 504 in 2016.

Christopher Fox-Walker is a trustee of the Sussex MS Centre in Southwick