Abstract
A Jehovah's Witness patient bled massively per rectum, but refused blood transfusion. A bleeding gastric leiomyoma was excised at eventual operation. His hemoglobin value fell to 2.2 gm/100 cc and on the third postoperative day he showed evidence of severe cerebral and myocardial ischemia and congestive heart failure developed. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy caused a reversal of all signs and symptoms of hypoxia, and the patient recovered. Blood taken from a subject breathing air at 1 atmosphere pressure has 0.3 vol% of oxygen dissolved in plasma; if the subject breathes 100% oxygen at 2 atmospheres absolute pressure, the amount of oxygen in physical solution in plasma is 4 vol%. In a patient with greatly diminished hemoglobin value, this increase in plasma oxygen may be adequate to sustain life.
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