Turtle undergoes experimental hyperbaric treatment

Seattle veterinarians will test a safeguarded ocean turtle on Friday to see whether treatment in a hyperbaric chamber, ordinarily utilized for decompression affliction as a part of human jumpers, has cured a lightness issue keeping the marine reptile from being discharged back to the sea.

Tucker, a 70-pound (32-kg), 20-year-old jeopardized olive ridley ocean turtle, was found in December sticking to life along the Oregon Coast, a long way from his species' standard warm-water environment off Southern California and Mexico, Seattle Aquarium authorities said.

Tucker has recuperated from pneumonia and different entanglements from hypothermia yet at the same time has a lightness issue brought on by inside gas rises in his body that keep the reptile from plunging or staying submerged.

"It's verging on like the turtle is wearing an existence preserver," Seattle Aquarium representative Tim Kuniholm said on Thursday.

Aquarium vets conveyed Tucker to Virginia Mason Hospital on Monday for a session in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber there, making him the primary non-human patient to visit the pressurized office and the main ocean turtle in the United States to experience such a treatment for lightness issues.

Tucker will experience testing on Friday to figure out whether the treatment is working and whether further sessions in the chamber are required, Kuniholm said.

Kuniholm said Tucker must have the capacity to control his lightness keeping in mind the end goal to get by in the wild, where he needs to jump underneath the surface for sustenance and maintain a strategic distance from predators and in addition perils, for example, water crafts.

"He could stay in human consideration, however that is not our objective," he included.

The hyperbaric treatment includes the turtle breathing 100 percent oxygen for over two hours, healing center authorities said. Tucker was quieted and watched nearly while snared to a heart screen and breathing tube.

"We have treated numerous scuba jumpers throughout the years for a gas bubble illness known as decompression affliction, which is likewise called 'the twists.' This is the first occasion when we have been solicited to help with the consideration from an ocean turtle, which are amazing jumpers themselves," James Holm, restorative executive at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, said in a composed articulation.