One out of 150 kids on the planet suffers from autism, or around 2 percent of the earth’s population. Bulgaria still lacks a joint register, covering children and adults with problems of that kind. About 140,000 are supposedly affected by the disease. Few know however that autism is a state, related to problems with social communication. That is why the society tends to neglect such people. Petar Kondev and his wife Lilia are from the town of Pazardjik and have 4 children. One of their sons, Emil, now 10 years old is an atypical autist. The problem was discovered a long time ago and the parents haven’t stopped seeking a way to solve it ever since. Dozens of therapies, treatments and methods – some of those help, others don’t… Here is what Petar told us:

“The truth lies in constant search and hard work. Thus we ended up with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or simply said – the hyperbaric chamber. This kind of therapy is not very well known in Bulgaria due to the simple reason that there are very few such chambers. When we reached that information, therapy of that kind was offered only in Varna and Sofia and we had to travel. That was why we opted first for a homemade hyperbaric chamber, bought abroad and gifted by a friend. However, the results were quite vague after 40 – 50 sessions. We decided that we should go on with a real chamber, if I may say so. The problem is that the homemade appliance works with really lower pressure with no added oxygen and it is precisely the essence of the therapy.”

The family moved to Varna for a couple of months where the child went through 45 consequent procedures every day. The results were substantial – the child started feeling his body much better, he improved a lot the overall and fine motor skills, he started trampolining and writing on loop. Several months later the procedures were repeated in Sofia with results as impressive as the previous ones. The parents were now sure they had found Emil’s therapy. The concerned father tried to look for chambers of that type, to convince local experts and hospital owners that the appliance was very useful. Alas, to no result. And then… Listen to Petar Kondev again:

“I am a technically oriented person and probably that helped me to build up a hyperbaric chamber. I had no doubts at that point that we needed one. Our living standard and abilities allowed me at least to give it a try. I was sure I would be able to do it, as the construction and hardware are not so complicated. One only needs the time, the money and the will. I had it all!”

A hyperbaric chamber consists of many technical elements. Petar selected each of those, looking for maximum reliability and the compliance with the technical requirements. All components are licensed and undergone metrology.

Bulgaria has no legislation on hyperbaric chambers. That can be a problem at a certain point, in case chambers appear, not complying with some requirements, but Petar is prepared to defend his invention. Like he says “I had never studied that hard for any of my degrees, the way I did it for the chamber”. His son has been using the chamber for a couple of months. He is happy, calm and communicative, the signs of autism are now almost gone, with the exception of speech… The boy now plays with the other kids, he is simply one of them. The parents are happy with what’s been achieved but there is still work ahead. They would like people to know that the therapy helps not only autistic kids, but also those with different forms of retardation, behavioral problems, hyperactivity etc. The hyperbaric chamber can be included in many processes: healing of any kind of tissue disorders, getting control over gas, food, fluid poisoning etc. This kind of therapy has existed for a decade in countries like England and Italy, used for free and on a large scale in cases of multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev