Team Staff

• Name:
• Frederick S. Cramer, M.D., F.A.C.S.
• Position:
• Medical Director

Dr. Cramer is a Board Certified General Surgeon who completed a twelve month Fellowship in Hyperbaric Medicine at the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in 1980.  He subsequently served as the Chief of Hyperbaric Medicine at the School from 1982-84.  He has been active with the International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine www.ichm.net, serving as the President of the 14th International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine held in San Francisco in 2002 and as Secretary-Treasurer since 1988.  He is co-editor of the text “Hyperbaric Oxygen – Perioperative Care” which was published in 2001.  Dr. Cramer holds an academic appointment as an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery At the University of California San Francisco.

• Name:
• Janine Thill, NC, CHT
• Position:
• Program Director

• Interesting Facts:
• Has a shark encounter every time she snorkels in the Ocean
• Favorite animal is the Elephant

Janine is a member of the International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine. As Program Director of Hyperbaric Recovery center, she manages all of the systems and executes all of the final decisions. Having been a patient herself, her experience and opinion is priceless to all who have desired to know about and undergo HBOT. All that goes on at HR&RC is focused on Janine’s insistence for a patient-friendly atmosphere, and hospital standards of care. She has a truly healing personality that is imbued in the design of the very center itself! One step into the spa-like facility will convince you that you have entered a realm of health. Her unwavering courage and attention to detail have manifested itself into this phenomenal HBOT center.

• Name:
• Lorenzo Alviso, CHT
• Position:
• Systems Manager & PR

• Interesting Facts:
• Is working on an R&B / Rock Music Album
• Visits Starbucks at *least* once a day, but with a record of 4 times

It’s Lorenzo’s coaxing voice you hear on the answering machine and hold message. He is a CHT who helps run treatments and supervise all the working systems in the center, improving them one by one thanks to mild (undiagnosed) OCD. After helping to establish many of the office systems, safety protocols and marketing edges, he is now gearing up to become a public relations megaphone of hyperbaric proportions. He is informed, loyal, has a heart of gold and a healthy obsession with the color green—all necessary qualities in a Nationally Certified Hyperbaric Technician!

• Name:
• Ruth Walker, CHT
• Position:
• Marketing Director & Physician Relations

• Interesting Facts:
• Has an affinity for strawberries
• Has Nightmares after watching ‘Clay-mation.’ (Animation of Clay based characters. Ex: Gumby, Jack Skellington…)

Ruthy is our Marketing Director who has helped us to get our name to the right people at the right times, and is responsible for our Ad and field work. Her people skills mixed with her eye for detail help establish HR&RC as the premier provider of HBOT in Northern California. (We’re shooting for Universal recognition. . .) Ruthy is anything but ruthless, however, as her calming presence and empathetic demeanor make her a patient favorite. She is a Certified Hyperbaric Technician who puts patient’s needs and concerns at the top of her list.

• Name:
• Denora Alviso, HT
• Position:
• Administrator & Billing Specialist

• Interesting Facts:
• Is a sucker for Chick flics, like The Notebook
• Met former Pro-wrestler Chyna Doll at Oliver’s Market in Cotati

Denora is our sweet and helpful office administrator, but don’t be fooled by her quiet nature—she means business! With a background of volunteer office work for the State of California, she handles phones, files and insurance companies with ease and grace. She also facilitates the billing processes and help’s to see to it that patients are receiving the best treatment cost, plans and options. Her intensive hyperbaric education helps to hone her skills in order to benefit all the patients that phone us, email us or walk through our doors.

• Name:
• Bianca Macias,
• Position:
• Patient Advocate & Safety/Privacy Officer

• Interesting Facts:
• Favorite color is White
• Is an aspiring singer/songwriter

Bianca is our behind the scenes wiz at safety, privacy and office techniques. Though a free spirited person at heart, she is no nonsense when it comes to safety inspections, facility cleanliness and organization, and patient privacy. Armed with previous education in hyperbaric medicine, she helps patients seek out the much needed clinical trials and research they need to get a prescription. Patients appreciate her helping hand and the pleasant sound of her singing in the hyperbaric center.

Our Story

(Reprint of article from The Community Voice)

Super Oxygen to the Rescue
Lyme Disease and other ailments tamed in RP’s hyperbaric chamber
By Jud Snyder

Four out of five members of the Thill family came down with Lyme Disease. It’s called “California’s Hidden Epidemic” , and is prevalent in 52 California counties. Lyme Disease almost always flies below the medical radar. It is not life-threatening, it brings on a multitude of symptoms that do not call for hospitalization and is treated symptomatically with a blizzard of drugs, antibiotics, intravenous boosters and supportive help. It is a persistent disease and insurance companies are reluctant to get involved.

“I couldn’t comb my hair or dress myself,” said Janine Marie Thill. “Nothing seamed to help. Then I heard of hyperbaric therapy. I had friends in Carlsbad near San Diego where a hyperbaric therapy center was located and had 30 days of treatment. From days of unable to function I began to feel improvement after 4 hours and by 26 hours I was almost back to my pre-Lyme condition.”

Janine Thill didn’t stop there. She plunged into the world of hyperbaric therapy. She already had pre-nursing studies at Santa Rosa Junior College to provide a head start. She and her husband, Richard (he has Lyme Disease also), took out a second mortgage on their home and invested in a hyperbaric therapy center in Rohnert Park at 1370 Medical Center Drive. It wasn’t easy. Special pipes are needed for the oxygen and the “hard chamber” itself has a minimum price tag of $250,000. There are “soft chambers” utilizing oxygen masks but these have drawbacks.

Their clinic is open daily and drop-in visitors are welcome to come inside and take a look. The phone number is 584-HEAL (4325).

It’s called Hyperbaric Recovery and Rejuvenation Center. The name implies it’s not a cure-all and as far as the Thill knows it’s the only one north of a center at UC San Francisco.

The hyperbaric chamber itself resembles a typical CAT scan chamber. Patients are slid inside for 90-minute sessions and they can read a book or look at DVD’s while filing their lungs with pure oxygen. Richard was inside one enjoying another look at a “Star Wars” DVD.

How does the process work? Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) gradually increases the oxygen level above the usual 15-20 percent oxygen level found in normal air. “It goes into the red blood cells and the increased metabolism of the parasites in the red blood cells due to large amounts of oxygen causes the parasites to virtually eat themselves. They die and are evacuated through normal means,” said Thill. “That’s a non-scientific explanation and perhaps an oversimplification, but it’s basically sound.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cautiously lists only 14 examples where HGOT is use full. Most of them are traumatic cases like exceptional blood loss, cyanide poisoning, non-healing wounds, and extensive burns.

“But HBOT has proved to be helpful in a vast number of other conditions,” she said. “In Europe, Japan, and China for example, HBOT is used in 70 or 80 disorders. These include stroke, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, head injuries, autism, vascular diseases, fibromyalgia, decreased immune functions.

“Saturating the tissues with oxygen reverses hypoxia (low oxygen levels), promotes angiogenesis (growth of new vessels), decreases swelling, deactivates toxins and increases the body’s ability to fight infections,” Thill added.

The procedure is painless. There’s pressure on your ears at the start, much like you feel in an aircraft cabin. It gets a little warmer as the decent period starts (about 10 minuets) but soon you are at the proper depth for 60 to 90 minutes of pure oxygen, and then comes the ascent period when the air gets cooler. All of the time the patient is in constant touch with the technician at the controls.

Thill, 40, is a Certified Hyperbaric Technologist with a wall full of certificates testifying to her skills. She and the majority of the Thill family (only 16 year old Zachary doesn’t have Lyme disease), have an emotional and vested interest in the war against the disease.

HBOT is not a cure-all. It’s a fairly new tool in medical treatment, and like other newly applied treatments in health, processes in Europe, Japan, and China in the use of HBOT has out-stripped progress in the United States.

“I feel I need to shout this from the rooftops,” said Thill. “The process dates back to the 16th century. It’s been used for years to rescue sailors from sunken Submarines. THe techniques here have furnished many of the current HBOT guidelines.

“We are just a hard working, blue collar family from Sebastopol that happens to be afflicted with Lyme disease. I want to do things here in the clinic just like they do in hospitals. It’s not a total cure but the improvements generated are quite visible”.

Thill urges the use of long sleeved shirts, buttoned collars, and protective socks for wear in tick country such as Sonoma and Marin counties.

“Mendocino County is the capitol of Lyme disease on the West Coast just like Connecticut is on the East Coast”. said Thill. “And just to make sure, we don’t go camping anymore.”

Hyperbaric Oxygen Proving Effective

FOR HEALING

We believe passionately in being active participants in the communities in which we serve. We provide support to educational organizations and groups that provide leadership service in our community, and work to alleviate suffering and promote healing. Unfortunately the patients who need it the most are severely disabled and those on SSI who cannot afford it. We have provided treatment to many people in need at cost and below cost and strive to help others in the future, by actively forming the non-profit organization:

“Hope for Healing” Inc.

Since our opening, our center has contributed
$74,470 to patients to receive treatment.