Eden Carlson was two years old when she suffered a near fatal drowning accident. Doctors gave Eden more than 100 minutes of CPR and 17 shots of epinephrine before she regained a spontaneous heartbeat. An MRI taken after the accident showed that Eden had sustained a global anoxic brain injury. She could not speak, walk, or respond to commands when she was discharged from the hospital after her accident. Eden’s parents found Dr. Harch while researching online and brought her to his clinic in New Orleans. Eden received 40 hyperbaric treatments during her first round of HBOT with Dr. Harch. A follow up MRI later showed that her brain damage had been reversed.
Here is Eden Carlson’s mother, Kristal telling her story to Megan Kelly from NBC Today’s Show. (View the video by clicking the link)
When Eden came to Dr. Harch’s Clinic, the parents had magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which showed deep gray matter injury on day 4 and cerebral atrophy with gray and white matter loss on day 32. Eden had no speech, gait, or responsiveness to commands on day 48 at hospital discharge.
She received normobaric 100% oxygen treatment (2 L/minute for 45 minutes by nasal cannula, twice/day) since day 56 and then hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) at 1.3 atmosphere absolute (131.7 kPa) air/45 minutes, 5 days/week for 40 sessions since day 79. It was visually apparent and a physical examination documented neurological improvement that occurred upon initiating each therapy.
After HBOT, Eden had normal speech and cognition, assisted gait, residual fine motor and temperament deficits. The MRI at 5 months after injury and 27 days after HBOT showed near-normalization of ventricles and reversal of atrophy. Subacute normobaric oxygen and HBOT were able to restore drowning-induced cortical gray matter and white matter loss, as documented by sequential MRI, and simultaneous neurological function, as documented by video and physical examinations.
Here is Eden’s Story – A Miracle in the Making, published on YouTube 4 May 2016.
The caption reads: On Feb 29, 2016 Eden drowned in a swimming pool. She technically died for nearly 2 hours. Miracle after miracle has brought her back to us. Her “near drowning” caused damage to some of her deep gray matter and left her with an anoxic brain injury. This is part of her story. This part takes us up to the point where she starts her hyperbaric treatments with Dr. Harch. Brace yourself for miracles.