Hall-of-Famer Says Treatment is Curing Disabling Effects of Concussions

by Duane Pohlman, WKRC

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – National Football League (NFL) statistics reveal its players suffered nearly 2,000 concussions from 2012 to 2019. Even with new concussion protocols designed to protect today’s players from further damage, neurologists say many of those players could be left with lifelong damage to their brains.

This Spotlight on America report is part of our continuing examination of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), which a growing number of players and experts claim can reverse damage to brains caused by concussive blows.

A LEGEND WITH A NEW LEASE ON LIFE

On a field overlooking the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, where his bust is enshrined inside, Dave Robinson, a legendary former linebacker for the Green Bay Packers, talked about the therapy he claims has given him a new lease on life.

“I feel good,” Robinson exclaimed with a smile.

The 79-year-old says he has more energy too. It’s a far cry from the worries Robinson expressed in December at a Pro Football Retired Players Association board meeting in Arlington, Virginia.

“I don’t want to get to that point where I don’t’ recognize my friends,” Robinson said, explaining his memory had become murky while he battled sleeplessness and bouts of agitation.

Robinson blames his brain issues on countless concussions he received while playing in brutal games, including leading his beloved Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls.

When asked how many concussions he received on the field during his years of glory, Robinson didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“Oh! More than you have fingers and toes,” he exclaimed, noting later that he suffered serious blows to the head in most games.

But now, for the first time in decades, Robinson says his mind is clearing and his memories are coming back, crediting it all to the HBOT he received.

“DIVING” INTO HBOT

Because HBOT was originally developed to treat divers who suffered from a buildup of nitrous oxygen in their blood, commonly referred to as “the bends,” each treatment is called a “dive.”

“I did 40 dives,” Robinson explained, talking about his treatment in May and June in a big purple hyperbaric chamber at Sara’s Garden, a clinic in the small northwestern Ohio city of Wauseon, which is just hours from his home in Akron.

During these dives, Robinson was fitted with an oxygen hood and sat down in the sealed chamber while it delivered100% oxygen under pressure. According to HBOT experts, this simple process delivers pure oxygen through the lungs to all parts of the body, including damaged sections of the brain.

MRI images attached to several studies reveal dormant sections of wounded and damaged brains light up with new brain activity after patients receive HBOT.

IMPLICATIONS FOR TREATING CTE

Forty scientific studies have revealed HBOT does heal wounded brains, which could be a game-changer for former players suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition that has plagued former NFL Players.

In 2017, a team of doctors and scientists examined the brains 111 former NFL players, including Junior Seau, Ken Stabler and Frank Gifford, and found 110 of them had CTE.

Yet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which approves HBOT for 14 conditions, does not approve HBOT for treating brain injuries, citing a lack of rigorous, clinical studies to prove it works, which brings us back to that Pro Football Retired Players Association board meeting in December.

Robinson and some of the greats of the game, Darrel Thompson, Billy Joe Dupree, Mike Haynes, Ron Mix, Mike Singletary, Jackie Slater and Jack Youngblood, all said they were suffering from the effects of concussions they received when they played football. Jim Brown was not in attendance.

Led by PFRPA’s executive director and CEO Bob Schmidt, the board voted to undergo HBOT themselves to truly see if it works.

“We’re going to use our retired players to really bring this issue forward,” Schmidt explained, saying he believes PFRPA can help bring HBOT to all players and even to military veterans who suffer from wounded brains.

Robinson is the first board member to undergo the full treatments and says it truly worked. Now, this Hall-of-Famer, who is already enshrined inside the hallowed hall in Canton, says he has one more run at another legacy: proving HBOT really works at curing the damage from concussions that have long plagued football players.

“I hope when I’m a 100 I still have my memories, I still have my faculties and can still move around and can tell people I owe it all to HBOT,” Robinson said with a smile moving across his face.

Read the original article from Local 12 WKRC HERE and repost from Pro Football Retired Players Association HERE.

No matter what you’ve been told, there is hope… for this and many other conditions. HBOT is treatment without drugs… without surgery… without pain.

2020 #GivingTuesday419

Like so many other things, #GivingTuesday419 this year has gone VIRTUAL!

#GivingTuesday419 is still all about giving back to the community, showing thankfulness and gratitude for what we do have, and sharing with those, who need it the most. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the format for giving.

Instead of a single day of giving, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, this year, #GivingTuesday419 will be a five-day event. From November 29 through December 3, 2020, anyone may log onto Everence’s Giving Tuesday web site, register for the virtual program, and enter their favorite charity into a special giveaway or drawing. Donations may also be made directly to Sara’s Garden with Sara’s Garden tallying the numbers and updating Everence’s Giving Tuesday totals.

Through last year’s Giving Tuesday Event, we had almost reached our fundraising goal for our fully accessible playgrounds and multisensory areas in Wauseon and Springfield, SO OUR KIDS COULD PLAY! We were all SO excited to get the projects started, to expand the roof over our courtyard, pour the latex-vinyl flooring for safe, exploratory play, and create UNBELIEVABLE play areas for physical education, therapy, recreation, and FUN!

And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the world changed for our special needs kids. Our school was forced to close, and our students were lost! They lost their routine, their sense of community, and even their playmates and friends. Online learning was NOT designed for special needs kids! They were MORE than anxious to come back to school, back to their routines, their teachers, and their friends.

But they also came back to coronavirus precautions—masks, social distancing, hand washing, sanitizing, teachers switching classrooms NOT kids, lunch in homerooms, and NO new playgrounds because of coronavirus delays and other required safety precautions. These new requirements were not part of our original plans, but they are NOW necessities to keep our children safe and healthy! So, we need YOUR help.

During this Giving Tuesday, please help our special needs kids to play and play safely by giving of yourself and helping us to finish our long-awaited playgrounds. Through your caring and support, we hope to continue to make a difference in the lives of our special needs children and their families. No gift is too small to help inspire change in Northwest Ohio!

For more information on #GivingTuesday419 or to register for the event, log onto Everence.com/GivingTuesday419.

Special Grounds Project Update ~ Oct. 2020

We wanted to update everyone on the status of our exciting new project, Special Grounds Coffee Shop.

Complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made this a challenging project. While these unforeseen factors have caused delays in our progress, we are still excited beyond belief at the amazing opportunities this facility will provide to our students and individuals with disabilities in our community. Walls are starting to go up and equipment is starting to arrive.

In the near future we hope to begin our roasting process which will allow us to master our roasting profiles and provide our customers with amazing blends and recipes.

Please continue to keep an eye out for our Special Grounds Coffee Shop Grand Opening invitation and announcement. We look forward to seeing you and serving you there!

Congratulations 2020 NHA Graduates!

We are so pleased and proud to congratulate our 2020 New Horizons Academy (NHA) graduates! It was a long time in coming, but you DID it!

Congratulations to—

Beaux Barrett
Haley Munday
Ellisha Rodriguez
Zoe Siefker
Luke Zachrich

Even with the COVID school closing, social distancing, masks, and small group graduations, NOTHING could stop our 2020 graduates! The first graduation ceremony honored Haley Munday and her family in May at NHA’s Hope Center with the last held October 3, 2020 at the new Career Center for Luke Zachrich and Beaux Barrett. This was a very memorable graduation season with the MOST graduates NHA has ever had in a single graduating class and hopefully, the most graduation ceremonies that we will ever hold in a single year.

For many our graduates and their parents, this graduation was truly a dream come true! Thank you to all of our graduates’ parents for never giving up on their children, for sticking with it, and for choosing New Horizons Academy.

For more information on our regional special needs schools in Wauseon and Springfield Township, please call Admissions Coordinator Ronda Rupp at 419-335-7272 or email her at rondar@sarasgarden.org.

2020 Classroom Toy Drive

We’re asked all the time for simple ways that families can help support our students and their classrooms.

One such option that is often overlooked, yet incredibly important, is the need for sensory toys that can be used to support the interventions and therapies being provided.

Every child benefits from having toys to play with. Toys help a child develop motor skills, creativity, social skills and other things they will need for growth and development. But for a child with autism or other special needs, toys play an even more vital role. Sensory toys help children with special needs gain a measure of control over their environment. Sensory toys for autism development are important because they help the child to learn problem-solving skills, something that many children with autism struggle to do. What may look like simple play with sensory toys for children with special needs is actually the process of education in action.

Having the right kind of sensory toys for autism education is very important to the development of the children in the classroom. Millions of children are affected by some kind of special need or disability that affects their ability to learn in a conventional way. Because of that, NHA incorporates various sensory related toys into our classrooms for special needs students.

We are holding a classroom toy drive to help collect toys so our kids can play! You can help make Christmas a little merrier for our kids and their classrooms.

BUY A TOY ~ SPONSOR A CLASSROOM

Thank you so much for making a difference at our school.

Merry Christmas!

Students and Teachers at New Horizons Academy

NHA COVID Update

New Horizons Academy (NHA) is committed to the safety and health of our students and staff, and we will do everything in our power to keep them safe! Unfortunately, not everything is within our control. As coronavirus cases continue to grow in Northwest Ohio, NHA had to confront its first positive COVID-19 result.

One of our staff members in Wauseon tested positive on October 29. Students and staff, who came into contact with that staff member, were quickly sent home from school, and cleaning and disinfecting were promptly begun. We are working closely with our local health department, and anyone identified as a close contact will be notified by them as a part of COVID-19 contact tracing.

How You Can Help
Be proactive about reducing the number of interactions that students and staff have with one another by practicing social distancing (staying at least 6 feet apart) to limit the spread of COVID-19. In addition to physical distancing, these important tools help to prevent the spread of COVID-19:

Stay home when you are sick.
Wear a mask or face covering while in public places or if people who don’t live with you must visit your home.
Avoid unnecessary gatherings with people who don’t live in your home.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. Sing the Happy Birthday song twice to help know when it has been 20 seconds. If soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based hand sanitizers that contain at least 60% alcohol.
Cover your coughs and sneezes with a tissue, and then dispose of the tissue and wash your hands immediately. If you do not have a tissue, use your sleeve, not your hands, to cover coughs and sneezes. If you are experiencing cough or congestion, consider staying home and seeking medical care.
Regularly clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends cleaning of frequently touched surfaces with household cleaners and EPA-registered disinfectants that are appropriate for the surface, following label instructions. A simple bleach solution may also be utilized.

For answers to your COVID-19 questions, call 1-833-4-ASK-ODH (1-833-427-5634) or visit coronavirus.ohio.gov.

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. If you or a loved one are experiencing anxiety related to the coronavirus pandemic, help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call the COVID-19 CareLine at 1-800-720-9616.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to call the school office at 419-335-7272. Thank you for helping to keep people safe and to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our community and school.