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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1988)
Friday, February 19, 1988/The BattaSion/Page 5 C (Continued from page 1) lillion mark by the end of the 1987- 988 school year. “Research funding has shown a Bve to 10 percent growth rate each lear since 1984,” Anderson said. ISince 1981, A&M has gone from number 18 among the nation’s re arch universities to number nine.” This expansion helps not only the :al retail market but others, such Real Estate, Transportation and burism. John Teixeira, vice presi- ent of the li-CS Convention and Visitor Bureau, referred to it as “. . . resource that never stops.” “The University is one of our best ssels,” Teixeira said. “ The faculty telps to bring conventions to the ^rea, former students return to re ive the old days and thousands tire ttracted by athletics year round.” U Teixeira stressed that the return on every dollar invested in tourism is $127.55 and that Texans will spend over $9 million in 1988 promoting tourist activ ities. “It’s not a quick fix,” Teixeira said, “but it helps to retain buisness and bring in new business. It’s a growth business that everyone of us owns.” On transportation, Ronald E. Hale, president of the transporta tion division of the B-CS Chamber of Commerce, talked about the need for new and improved roadways in the area because of increased traffic headed for College Station and about the new, $4.5 million terminal being built by Texas A&M at Eas- terwood Airport. “The new terminal plans are im pressive and will serve to attract businesses to the area,” Hale said. “It is important to communicate to city officials that we need to support the airport project.” Road projects currently in the works include widening Texas Ave nue and University Drive near cam pus in 1989 and the lowering of Wellborn Road from University to Jersey Road. “We live in a positive community moving in a positive direction,” said Dennis Goehring, President of the College Station Economic Devel opment Foundation. “We’ve begun to look in a different direction to es cape our current gloom and doom and it is working. Goehring helped introduce the “Roadrunner” program to area busi nessmen. He said that the program helps to get information to the peo ple who can use it by combining v a rious resources. “This way, everyone of us can be involved in the economics of the area,” Goehring said. “It gives them the chance to prove that we are a shining community.” xygen (Continued from page 1) pultiplace chambers,” Aaron said. The new facility consists of a main ihamber and a staff entry lock. The lylindrical main chamber is 10 feet In diameter and 8 feet tall inside, Jnd is able to accommodate up to four patients at once, he said. "The reason for having a chamber |his size is so you can place atten- lants in with the patients, especially britical care patients,” Aaron said. I'Say if someone went into cardiac ar rest, you’d need to have someone in Ihere with them. “In this type of chamber there is biways an attendant in there with the patient . . . but in a monoplace, the patient is committed to the pressure and it takes a while to bring them down,” he said. The entire system cost, about 5400,000 to install, but this is com paratively low, Aaron said. This type of chamber can cost up to $1 million, he said. The cost of operating this |facility will depend on how many jpeople are on staff, he said. Fife said the cost to the patient will |be about $ 150 per treatment. “We probably have about the low- lest price in the country for this type loftreatment,” he said. “If you’re not lin a place like this, the costs can go [sky-high.” According to Aaron, hyperbaric loxygen as a medical treatment has [had a rather checkered past “Going into the 60s, it had a pretty bad reputation because it had been tried on things such as senility and impotence, things that there was really no basis for thinking it would have any effect on,” he said. Once the effectiveness of hyper baric oxygen treatments began to be confirmed scientifically, its respect ability began to grow. In every case, hyperbaric treat ment is an adjunctive therapy — it is used along with things such as anti biotics or surgery, he said. Fife said there is quite a large body of medical conditions and diseases that hyperbaric oxygen will help heal. “One of the most important (dis eases) is osteoradionecrosis,” he said. This disease occurs in some cancer patients who have recieved radiation treatment. “Sometimes (after irradiation) the bone starts to break down, or even the skin, and hyperbaric oxygen tends to reverse that,” Fife said. “I just finished treating two people with a series of treatments who had this in the jaw because of cancer in the jaw and it really worked well.” It has also been proven that hy perbaric oxygen is of major value in the treatment of gas gangrene, a bacterial infection that feeds on methane gas produced by decaying flesh. This type of treatment was used on Jessica McClure, the little girl who gained national recognition al ter being trapped in #n-abandoned well. “She had gone without circulation for quite some time and the tissue started dying in her extremities, and she was also in a nice place to get gangrene,” Aaron said. Gangrene was beginning to set in on her, but through the use of hyperbaric treat ments to improve circulation, doc tors were able to substantially reduce the tissue loss, he said. She was treated in a monoplace chamber. Fife said hyperbaric oxygen is also used with such things as carbon monoxide poisoning, bones that won’t heal properly, skin grafts that are not doing well and a variety of other conditions. “We suggested using it to treat mi- grane headaches; we can stop one in as little as 12 minutes,” he said. Hyperbaric oxygen is also used to minimize scarring and to enhance skin growth, and is used in some plastic surgery, he said. Aaron said one of the nicest things about the use of hyperbaric oxygen is that when administered properly, it has no harmful side-ef fects. So far, Fife’s work with these chambers has been very successful. Fife said, “In the history of our working with this (at the monoplace lab near Easterwood Airport) we know that we have saved two lives, and we’ve saved nine limbs from having to be amputated, plus reduc ing of all the suffering and discom fort of people. And we’ve now saved four people’s jaws . • . . that-were j*ist going to fall apart.” DEPECHE MODE MUSIC FOR THE AMSSES INCLUDES "NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN" m.ui e S 9 SIRE © 1988 SIRE RECORDS COMPANY THE HOUSE OF DOLLS I INCLUDES “THE MOTION OF LOVE” o. GEFFEN masmnanm £’ 1988 lECMRS BVVQt ET Hi). Available AI Hastings books • music • video 953P J Culpepper Plaza tAfU AT TO DO ON Lite LOWENBRAU REAK High Life. C)0!f Genuine Draft t v? £ * ? * f S-s*-* fr* yf ; l : U \ - • ' If you feel the need for speed. v 2199. 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