T&T: Robbie receiving hyperbaric treatment in NY

FORMER President Arthur NR Robinson is to be placed into a hyperbaric chamber at a New York hospital on Tuesday for oxygen therapy for radiation injury.

He is expected to be abroad for two months undergoing this treatment.

Robinson, 77, confirmed this to the Sunday Express in a telephone interview yesterday from his Ellerslie Park home.

He explained that the oxygen therapy was necessary because of "radiation treatment" he had a few years ago.

Radiation treatment alters the normal tissues and anatomy, and this may cause non-healing ulcers, skin changes, tissue induration and other disorders.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the administration of 100 per cent oxygen in a pressurised chamber. The air we breathe contains 21 per cent oxygen. Increasing the oxygen supply can aid in restoring white blood cell function and anti-microbial activity.