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Observational Study of Children with Autism Who Have Participated in Hyperbaric Oxgen Therapy Tamela Marie Powell Wayne State University

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Observational Study of Children with Autism Who Have Participated in Hyperbaric Oxgen Therapy Tamela Marie Powell Wayne State University Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2011 Observational study of children with autism who have participated in hyperbaric oxgen therapy Tamela Marie Powell Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Special Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Powell, Tamela Marie, "Observational study of children with autism who have participated in hyperbaric oxgen therapy" (2011). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 390. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. OBSERVATIONAL STUDY OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY by TAMELA MARIE POWELL DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2011 MAJOR: SPECIAL EDUCATION Approved by: Advisor Date © COPYRIGHT BY TAMELA M POWELL 2011 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION To my family my parents, Jim and Ann Oxford my children, Blake and JeAnnah and my husband, Bruce. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost my praise and thanks goes to the one who gives me the strength to make all things possible, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Second, my family, who I can’t imagine pursuing this without their support. My parents who never stop believing I can do whatever I put my mind to and then helping me to make it possible. They taught me as a child and as an adult what discipline and hard work is all about. Their countless trips to run errands for me, make dinner, run the kids around, and much more, were priceless. My children, Blake and JeAnnah, who have heard far too often, “Just let me finish this one page.” Their support and constant encouragement means more than words can express. Bruce, my husband, who from day one of my telling him my desire to pursue a PhD never stopped encouraging me to keep going on, reminding me why I do what I do. Dr. Marshall Zumberg, thank you for your willingness to join the team as my chair at the last minute. I’m not sure how I would have done it without you. Your patience to understand my research without familiarity with my topic was a blessing. Dr. Greg Zvric for your willingness to fill in after the retirement of a committee member on short notice and being helpful in the process, thank you. Dr. Shlomo Sawilowsky, after having his course I knew he would be of upmost value to my committee. I never thought statistics could be so interesting until I had the honor of being one of his students. Your patience in teaching me how to apply the statistics to my research was amazing. Dr. Sawilowsky continues to encourage me to go beyond and provided me the guidance to do so. iii Dr. Rob Sherwin, who would have thought someone I served coffee to could be such a blessing to myself and my daughter. Not only were you key in helping restore by daughter’s life, but in my quest for answers you were there as well. Your input was priceless. The time you spent with me on clarifying the first three chapters was appreciated more than I can express. I’m not sure how I would have done the IRB without your guidance. You gave me just enough to let me know how to search out the answers, guiding me when I needed it and letting me seek answers when I could. iv PREFACE For some individuals obtaining a PhD is for status, some for the ability to teach at the collegiate level, for others to fulfill a goal they set for themselves. For me this journey began with a quest for knowledge, for answers to many questions that all began one early morning on June 14, 2006. It was June 14, 2006, a morning I will never forget, and one that changed the direction of my life as well as my family’s lives forever. My nine year old daughter, who typically bounces down the stairs excited about going to school, practicing her dance steps from the previous night’s dance class, suddenly was struggling to walk. She managed to get herself to the breakfast table, but was unable to bring the spoon to her mouth. As we rushed her to the emergency room we quickly felt her slipping from us. Upon arrival to the ER she was unable to walk or talk to us. The grim diagnosis of viral encephalitis was given to us within a few hours. Over the next few days she continued to regress, unable to hold her head up, breathing and heart rate irregular, kidneys shutting down. The hospital staff graciously told us there was no reason to transfer her to ICU, nothing more could be done and keeping her on a pediatric floor allowed me to stay by her side. We watched her struggle to hold onto life for the next few weeks. Then came the reality of the brain damage. She survived; however, she was not the same child as before. Her mental and speech capacity was tested at an 18 month capacity, she was ataxic, hypotonic (low muscle tone), visually impaired, sensory and emotionally impaired. We were told she would be discharged from the hospital once the wheelchair she was fitted for arrived. I remember thinking, “Wheelchair? Why, my daughter will walk again.” However, reality soon hit when I began to care for a disabled child. We did v the traditional physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, but improvements were slow and minimal, and in many areas she regressed as seizure activity started and what little muscle done she had from the waist down diminished. I had joined some internet support groups and through that I heard about hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I had never even heard the term before, or remembered hearing it, but I knew it was something she had to try. Through a connection we had at Detroit Receiving Hospital, JeAnnah began treating in their hyperbaric oxygen therapy center on July 31, 2006. Prior to her starting I had every evaluation I knew of done, from OT to cognitive. I wanted to know beyond a mom’s feelings if she was really getting better. The evaluations were almost unnecessary. She immediately had huge gains, able to kneel after one treatment, after one week she no longer meet the criteria for occupational or speech therapy, she was mentally back to grade level, with no more seizure activity. Ten days later she stood with support, and two months later she was tap dancing. I was thrilled to have my little girl back, but it left a lot of questions in my mind. Could hyperbaric oxygen therapy help other special needs children? I have been teaching special needs children since 1985. I love that population of children, but what if there is something more than what we are offering in the schools to help them? Why did it bring my daughter back? Who else can it help? The population of autism was a group I had seen go from almost non-existent to common place on my case load as a teacher. I watched as some children appeared to progress very rapidly in a short burst of time, while others made almost no gains. Those vi with the gains parents claimed they had found their answer in complementary therapies. Was there any validation to their claims? I related what I saw with my daughter to the child with autism. I had to know if and why it could help. With a yearning for answers I began to research complementary/alternative therapies and the efficacy behind them. With my yearning came answers, there is hope for recovery! There is more for a special needs child than the schools or traditional medicine can offer. As an educator we need to be aware of what is available to help our children. Having a desire to help special needs children have access to complementary therapies I have founded a foundation, Oxford HBOT Kid’s Foundation. Not only do we offer funds for therapies for special needs children we have a future goal of offering an all-in-one center where they can go to have an array of therapies all at one location. With the center will now come the responsibility of more studies, and with the studies will come answers. Do these complementary therapies really offer hope, healing, recovery? We owe it to these children, to the families, to continue to seek out answers to the beguiling questions of why, how, and what if. This PhD, for me, is only the beginning, one piece of the puzzle put into place. There is so much more research to be done, so many more kids to help. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ………….…………………………………………...………………………………ii Acknowledgments………………………………..…………………………………………….iii Preface …………..…………………………..………………………………………………….v List of Tables …...………………….…….…………...………………………………………..x List of Figures ………….…………………..…………………....…………….…..…………..xi CHAPTER 1 – Introduction…………………………………………….……………1 CHAPTER 2 – Literature Review ………………….….…………….……………18 CHAPTER 3 – Methodology……………………….….….....……………………..81 CHAPTER 4 – Results…...………………………………...…………………...….88 CHAPTER 5 – Summary and Discussion…………………...……..…….…..…107 Appendix A – Michigan Rule for Autism………..………………..….…..………115 Appendix B – letter………..………………………………………….……………116 Appendix C – HIC Approval…………………………………..……..……………119 Appendix D – Parent questionnaire .……………………..…………..…………120 Appendix E – Summary of ATEC………………………..……………….…...…121 Appendix F – Sample test scores…………………..……..……………….....…122 Appendix G – Dive logs and parent journals.……..……………………..…..…125 References…………………..…………………………………..….………….……………134 Abstract ……………………………...…………………………………..……….………….154 Autobiographical Statement ………………………………………………...…..…………156 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Percent Increase in All Diagnostic Populations .………………..…….………..21 Table 2: Percentages of increase in autism v.
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