Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment for Kentucky Veterans, Inc. (HBOT4KYYVETS) was founded in 2018 for charitable purposes as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The principal address is 9462 Brownsboro Road, #217, Louisville, KY 40241. Official documents are available below:
Articles of Incorporation
By-Laws
IRS Form 1023 Packet
Our story begins half a century ago, with a young Marine serving in Vietnam.
Colonel Ron Ray’s 12 months in the South Vietnam combat zone were filled with large exploding bombs, artillery shells, mortars, rockets, high explosives and ordnances during combat operations from both US and enemy forces. During
Operation Coronado II on July 31, 1967, then-Captain Ray received one of two silver stars and suffered a significant head injury. The Silver Star citation states,
Fragment wounds left cheek, left side of head and left [unreadable word] that required critical medical attention.
His Bronze Star award citation states, “Captain Ray was hit, painfully wounded, and knocked unconscious by a mortar fragment.”
Nearly 50 years after concussive force and injury, this Kentucky vet carries the devastating diagnosis of “Major Neurocognitive Disorder Secondary to a Medical Condition Traumatic Brain Injury.” After extensive testing, hyperbaric oxygen treatment was recommended by his neurologist/psychiatrist and his general practitioner. But Colonel Ray was denied treatment, even though he was willing to pay for the 60 oxygen treatments in the metal tanks.
These chambers are critical for those like US Marine Staff Sergeant Alex Nauert, whose vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive while on mounted patrol in October of 2010 in Sangin, Afghanistan. SSgt Nauert was partially ejected from the vehicle where he had been riding up as the turret gunner. In addition to a broken pelvis, dislocated jaw and various lacerations, SSgt Nauert was diagnosed with Traumatic Brain Injury. SSgt Nauert is one of the nearly 400,000 veterans diagnosed since 2000 with TBI. Combat medicine has made enormous gains in saving lives in the modern warfare age. While bleeding can be stopped and bones set, knowledge of brain health and healing is emerging as complications can develop quickly or even years later from these traumas. In view of the huge numbers of returning vets from the desert wars with similar wounds, Colonel Ray and his wife have worked to develop legislation which opens oxygen chambers to veterans who suffer from traumatic brain injury.
Oklahoma was the first to successfully open the chambers for veterans. Kentucky Rep. Stan Lee (R-HD 45) has lead the effort in the Bluegrass State to ensure Kentucky vets are not blocked from accessing the chambers. Rep. Lee says:
“It’s time to allow wounded veterans access to this FDA treatment currently in use for strokes, a neurological event, wounds, diabetic wound care, and other conditions. While HBOT is considered ‘off-label’ for TBI, it has more ‘on-label’ indications for brain injury treatment than any drug or therapy in medicine currently in use.”
Please use this website for educational purposes to build the case in your state to open HBOT chambers to American military veterans across the U.S.
