PRESS RELEASE

Pro Football Retired Players Association (PFRPA) to honor Service Members and Retired Players successfully treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Concussion/TBI/PTSD

 

WASHINGTON, DC (PRO FOOTBALL RETIRED PLAYERS ASSOCIATION) JUNE 25, 2018

 

The PRO FOOTBALL RETIRED PLAYERS ASSOCIATION (PFRPA) is hosting a Congressional Reception to honor brain-injured veterans. This joint effort with the TreatNOW Coalition, and numerous hyperbaric oxygen practitioners, will focus on a treatment already healing warriors from the battlefield and the gridiron. Following successes with over 3,000 veterans, athletes, first responders, fire, police, National Guard and Reservists, PFRPA is introducing some of those transformed veterans and athletes to members of Congress on June 27th at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington DC.

 

"The Executive Director of PFRPA, Mr. Robert Schmidt, struck a hopeful note: "Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) greatly improves cognitive ability and pain relief for Traumatic Brain Injury. We hope to convince Congress, the DOD, and the VA to recognize the beneficial use of HBOT or, at a minimum, to fund such additional studies as they feel necessary even though we feel the evidence already exists to justify mass treatment. Football players will also benefit from action by the DOD and VA but that is secondary to our desire to help heal our combat veterans."

It is now well documented that collision sports and blasts on the battlefield subject the brain to wounding that cannot be treated using only a Concussion Protocol. Evidence continues to mount that brains damaged during sport and war can lead to long-term neurological and psychological damage and deterioration. Negative quality of life issues have affected thousands of brain-wounded veterans. A growing number of TBI/PTSD/Concussion-afflicted veterans have been lucky enough to receive HBOT, largely on a pro bono basis in TreatNOW Coalition clinics around the nation. Retired ballplayers like Joe Namath, Joe Delamielleure, Bill Romanowsky, Marv Fleming, and Roy Jefferson, along with many others, also have seen dramatic reversal of symptoms of brain damage. Fatigue, pain, headaches, memory, sleep, executive function, frustration, and depression are a few of the afflictions that too often are constant companions of brain wounded veterans and athletes alike. Thousands of service members suffering from TBI/PTSD/Concussion are never told about HBOT. They are denied access to this healing treatment by military medicine. Unsurprisingly, the treatments are not covered by insurance. Progress to date has come from donors and HBOT clinic owners and researchers who labor for justice and acceptance of this treatment that has proven safe and effective in numerous studies around the world. Even DOD/VA/Army have produced data in five studies that show safety and efficacy.

  

PFRPA and TreatNOW hope to educate Congress, the medical community and insurance companies about the cost savings and medical benefits of healing brain wounds using HBOT and other alternative therapies. As Roy Jefferson, star receiver for the Redskins, recently put it after his life-transforming treatment after 40 years: "We made football what it is. We deserve this; we all do."

 

POC:  Robert L. Schmidt  bob.schmidt@pfrpa.com  (240) 925-1532

See:  www.footballgreatsalliance.com    and    www.treatnow.org