Unique treatment helps injured airman

  • Published
  • By Lois Walsh
  • Air Armament Center Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) --  In an instant, Staff Sgt. Hector Barrios’ life came crashing down like a ton of bricks.

Barrios, assigned to the 96th Security Forces working dog section here, deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. While on gate-guard duty July 15, he removed a wire strung to a concrete barrier to allow a vehicle through the makeshift gate. As the truck cleared the barrier, it caught the wire, causing the 2-ton barrier to fall on Barrios’ left leg and foot.

“I heard the barrier sliding, and the next thing I knew it hit me, knocked me down, and then I felt the pain,” he said.

Barrios was rushed to the hospital on base, and was quickly transferred downtown because of the extent of his injuries. At that point, all the bones in his foot, including his toes, were broken.

While the doctors there did everything they could to fight infection and repair the damage, they said the outcome did not look good. After two weeks, Barrios returned for treatment at the hospital here.

Even in constant pain, Barrios said his main concern was for his job, since security forces were short-staffed.

“When the accident happened and they rushed me to the hospital, I was worried about not being (deployable) because I really like what I do,” Barrios said. “Instead I’m getting sent home because I was hurt.”

Orthopedic doctors here quickly realized drastic measures were needed to save Barrios’ foot. Within 48 hours of arrival, Barrios began treatment in at a hyperbaric-oxygen chamber in the local community, according to Capt. Denny Engle, 96th Medical Squadron’s orthopedic physician’s assistant.

Some diseases and conditions improve with oxygen therapy, according to Dr. Eddie Zant, a physician with the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Center. This includes crush injuries such as the one Barrios suffered. He is treated twice a day for one and a half hours each.

Hyperbaric-oxygen therapy promotes advanced wound healing and preserves damaged tissue, Zant said.

“Patients breathe 100-percent oxygen with the pressure in the chamber between 33 and 45 feet of seawater depth,” he said. “This therapy increases the amount of oxygen in the blood delivered to body tissues up to tenfold.”

Barrios was the first patient Engle referred for hyperbaric treatment, and so far he said he is pleased with the results.

"For Sergeant Barrios, this was a way to optimize treatment interventions. The treatments will help preserve marginally injured tissue and demarcate the dying tissue,” Engle said. “We hope to preserve as much of his foot as possible so we can restore him to walking.

“In the past, the foot would have been amputated quicker, but now we have adjunctive treatment that can allow him additional time to show progression of tissue healing,” he said. “And, in the absence of advancing infection, every little bit of time helps."

Engle said he is cautiously optimistic that some of Barrios’ foot can be saved, although he does expect partial amputation because of the devastating injury. But he hopes for a “functional outcome so Sergeant Barrios can still be productive in the Air Force.”

This is exactly why Barrios said he has maintained a lighthearted attitude, even when faced with the injuries.

“You have to be positive, otherwise it doesn’t do any good. I’m always trying to stay positive,” Barrios said.

And while he does not know what the future brings, Barrios said he is hopeful that modern medicine can save his foot and his career. Then, he can do what he loves -- working with dogs and being in the Air Force.