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NUMC HYPERBARIC UNIT TO PROVIDE PRESSURE EXPOSURE TRAINING TO TUNNEL WORKERS FOR PROJECT TO GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 12, 2011

PRESS CONTACT:
Shelley Lotenberg
shelley@numc.edu
516-572-6055

NUMC HYPERBARIC UNIT TO PROVIDE PRESSURE EXPOSURE TRAINING TO TUNNEL WORKERS FOR PROJECT TO GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL


East Meadow, NY…The hyperbaric unit at the Nassau University Medical Center, has been requested to provide pressure exposure orientation “dives” to tunnel workers, who are completing the historic East Side Access Project linking the Long Island Rail Road to a new station located beneath the existing  Grand Central Terminal.  NUMC will also be a primary referral site for the workers should they sustain decompression sickness while working under pressure and require hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

The NUMC hyperbaric medicine chamber provides advanced wound care, specialized oxygen therapy and critical care emergency services to the entire Long Island region and Tri-State area. Due to the Medical Center’s unique capabilities, the NUMC Administration has been asked to help provide orientations and medical support to one of the largest civil engineering projects even undertaken in New York.
 
“This represents an excellent opportunity for NUMC to support our community on this major Long Island Works Project,” said Arthur A. Gianelli, President/CEO of the NuHealth System. “The link will permit direct rail access to the east side of Manhattan from Long Island. This project is considered to be the greatest single improvement to the Long Island business economy since the Long Island Expressway and is the first major expansion of LIRR in over 100 years.
These orientations are being conducted in order to help insure the workers are able to equalize pressure as well as breathing oxygen by mask.”

Four tunnels are planned by the MTA under a contract with GTF-Joint Venture group using two pressurized face slurry tunnel boring machines (TBM) which will cut four 22 foot diameter tunnels through soft ground in Queens connecting the LIRR mainline to the existing 63rd St. tunnel to newly excavated tunnels and a new concourse under Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.

. While the use of the pressurized face slurry TBM’s mean that during normal operations the tunnel works are able to work normally when maintenance to the two cutterheads  is required access to the excavation chamber  at the front of the TBM has to be undertaken using compressed air to provide support of the soft ground. Working in such conditions under pressurized conditions can produce decompression sickness, or the “bends” or cassions disease as it has often been called in the past. Many early New York tunnel workers died from cassions disease while building such famous New York structures as the Brooklyn Bridge.  
 
The Historic Tunnel Workers Union Local 147 “Sandhogs” are New York’s legendary urban miners. They have built every tunnel in New York and the foundations for many of the city’s bridges. 

Donna Hangan, CHRNC, CWS, ANP, hyperbaric unit coordinator at NUMC, further explained, “While working in the cuterheads, the workers will be required to work in a pressurized capsule much like our Hyperbaric Chamber.  The NUMC hyperbaric chamber in some cases will be their first experience under pressure.” She went on to add, “Within the NUMC hyperbaric chamber, workers are receiving a pressure exposure orientation which includes an instructional period and a dive to 60 feet below sea water for pressure testing.”  

The NUMC chronic wound and hyperbaric medicine service also provides advanced wound care to diabetic patients at risk of amputation and is the only 24/7 hyperbaric emergency service treating carbon monoxide poisoning / smoke inhalation and diver recompression for the bends. The NUMC chronic wound and hyperbaric medicine services are open daily. 516-572-5201.

ABOUT NUHEALTH
NuHealth is a Long Island health care organization delivering essential medical care and disease and lifestyle management to everyone at every stage of life.  Also known as Nassau Health Care Corporation, NuHealth is a public benefit corporation managing the operations of Nassau Medical Center, A. Holly Patterson Extended Care and a network of Family Health Centers that bring primary and specialty care out into the community.  By emphasizing wellness, cultural sensitivity and collaborative efforts with the North Shore-LIJ Health System, NuHealth is working to make good care more affordable and easier to access.

For more information about NuHealth or its Centers of Care, visit www.nuhealth.net.