From a wheelchair to walking in just days - the revolutionary treatment for long Covid at St Cross

A revolutionary treatment for long Covid – which saw one patient go from relying on a wheelchair to being able to comfortably walk in just a day – is being conducted at Rugby’s St Cross.

The Advertiser learned of the treatment, being conducted at the Midlands Diving Centre, when a patient called in to praise the project for the profound effect it had, easing their long Covid symptoms.

We got in touch with the centre – and Dr Michael Gonevski, who has been spearheading the revolutionary treatment, invited us to come and see it for ourselves.

The treatment sees patients sitting in the centre’s Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, which looks quite like a submarine, for a spell of sessions lasting around an hour-and-a-half for up to two weeks.

The chamber simulates the level of pressure usually found 14 metres underwater – and this causes pure oxygen to be forced into the body, being absorbed by cells and prompting regeneration.

Dr Gonevski, who has previous expertise in both diving and using this method to treat an array of conditions, said he has treated 53 long Covid patients since the beginning of this year – and all of them have shown significant improvement.

“We’ve had people who had not been able to leave the house for 18 months show radical improvement in days, we’ve even had someone who was so ill she was using a wheelchair begin walking again,” Dr Gonevski said.

“Long Covid can be life–changing, and we have been able to either reverse entirely or significantly improve the symptoms of this condition.

“And these changes are permanent – they do not disappear when the treatment is completed.”

One patient who spoke with the Advertiser was in the early stages of the treatment, but he said he had already noticed a profound difference in his symptoms.

The patient, who wished to remain anonymous, was educated to a high level and, before developing long Covid, had been fit enough to climb Mont Blanc.

He explained the debilitating physical and cognitive symptoms of his condition, and shared how hopeless he’d become when doctors told him there was nothing they could do to help.

This patient, like many others who have travelled from across the country, said Dr Gonevski and his staff have given them hope – and a hope justified by the clear results that the treatment gets.

Many of the patients are private, but Dr Gonevski is hoping that the NHS will recognise the life-changing treatment and increase its funding so it can be available to all.

See oxygenhealing.co.uk for more information.