The doctors of the Covid department of the Valduce Hospital in Como, Italy, had used all the means and therapies available to them. The situation was desperate. For the 63-year-old Mrs. Maria Ausilia, called “Usi”, there seemed to be little chance of recovery. The former husband chartered accountant Francesco Nessi together with the doctors prof. Marianno Franzini, International President of the Scientific Society of Oxygen/Ozone Therapy (SIOOT), and the surgeon Emanuele Franchi were ready for one last therapeutic attempt with oxygen/ozone therapy. 

 

Dr. Franchi is an orthopedics and traumatology specialist, current Head of the Orthopedics Unit of the Clinical Institute of Villa Aprica in Como, a member of SIOOT, who has been practicing ozone therapy since 2006. 

 

Interviewed by “Orbisphera”, Dr. Franchi said:

 

«The SIOOT and prof. Franzini were contacted by dr. Nessi, desperate for the condition of his ex-wife, who after more than two weeks of intensive care intubated and subsequently transferred to the pulmonology ward where she was supported with non-invasive ventilation 24 hours a day, did not seem to improve despite the various therapies reserved for her.  Dr. Nessi was determined to try one last therapy for his wife, so he asked the hospital managers to be able to practice oxygen-ozone therapy under conditions of compassionate protocol. Once he became aware of the lady’s conditions and made an agreement with the hospital for the practice of this therapy, prof. Franzini involved me as an ozone therapist who carries out his own business in Como.

 

Having dealt with the necessary paperwork, I entered the department on the morning of Saturday 10 April.

 

The patient was in very serious condition, with the ratio between ventilation perfusion and oxygenation the so-called (P/F) equal to 90. A very low value considered as a critical limit for intubation.

 

After the interview with the patient’s colleagues, it was immediately clear to me that despite the therapies used up to that time and the long resuscitation treatment, the patient’s clinical condition did not improve and, after a careful evaluation, it was considered unlikely that the physique of the lady already strongly weakened could withstand other invasive treatments such as resuscitation maneuvers.

 

As foreseen by the protocol studied with prof. Franzini, we therefore started with the first major autohemotherapy (MAH), which was then repeated in the evening.  Oviously, during the whole period in which we practiced oxygen-ozone therapy, none of the original therapies in progress were suspended.

 

The surprising thing is that on Sunday morning, after just two MAH sessions, the ratio (P/F) between ventilation perfusion and oxygenation had already risen to 210. This was a sensational response.

 

In the following days the parameters of (P/F) stabilized between 270 and 300, an exceptional result if you consider that we started from 90.

 

Even knowing how effective MAH was, I was the first to be amazed at how sensational the effect of ozone therapy had been on the lady’s health conditions.

 

We continued with this treatment for four days.

 

In the following days, we witnessed a constant improvement in clinical and laboratory parameters.

 

The values of the C-reactive protein that measures inflammation fell from 150 to 40,

and the values of the D-dimer which measures the coagulation mechanisms related to the formation of thrombi fell from 1500 to 500.

 

After a few days of therapy and clinical improvement, a control CT scan of the chest was repeated which surprisingly showed a marked improvement in the pulmonary infiltrative foci.

 

We therefore decided to continue with the treatment once a day for about another week.

 

A few days after discontinuing the therapy, Dr. Nessi reported that his wife was fine and even managed to celebrate her birthday a few days after the end of the therapy with the staff by going out on the terrace of her hospital room.

 

I am an orthopedics specialist and I find it difficult to understand all the mechanisms of action of ozone, but by evaluating the clinical parameters that I am able to understand, I can say that the improvement seems surprising to me.

 

It is the first time that I have personally treated a Covid-19 patient with ozone therapy and it seems to me an example of remarkable success in the ability to cure.

 

The results are consistent and in line with what has been observed and published in the case reports and in the international bibliography in which 890 Covid-19 patients are successfully treated with the aid of oxygen-ozone therapy associated with standard therapies used in dedicated departments.

 

What amazed me most is that Covid-19 patients treated with oxygen ozone therapy in combination with conventional therapies reported in the literature, were subjected to protocols that provided for the use of this treatment developed for patients in less dire conditions. 

 

This, in my opinion, suggests that if we had intervened at the first symptoms rather than when the picture was so impaired, the course of the lady’s illness might have been more favorable from the beginning.

 

After the oxygen ozone therapy, the patient tested negative for Covid-19, so it would be worth furthering the studies to understand if and to what extent this therapy, which is known to have antibacterial and antiviral properties, may have contributed to this result.

 

I am fascinated and favorably surprised by the behavior of ozone, even though I have long verified its anti-inflammatory and anti-infective capacity in patients I have treated with bacterial loads that could not be eradicated with normal drug treatment.

 

I was very confident in ozone’s ability to fight Covid, however I was amazed by the results that went far beyond my expectations.

 

Unfortunately, despite the results obtained in this and in other cases reported in the literature, to date an appropriate experimentation and evaluation process has not been developed that allows oxygen-ozone therapy to be recognized as an adjuvant to those known to all and used in the Covid-19 disease therapy more universally.

 

Reflecting on what happened in my limited experience and comparing myself with some fellow ozone therapists who have been involved in the treatment of other patients suffering from Covid-19 disease, I am convinced that it would be worth putting the effort into carrying out a comprehensive research aimed at “approval of oxygen-ozone therapy as a hospital protocol for the treatment of Covid-19 patients”. I also hope that other hospitals may consider in the interim the use of therapy as a compassionate cure for those cases for which the standard therapies recognized and used on a large scale have unfortunately not brought satisfactory results, in the hope that other patients can draw the benefit that I have been able to observe.

 

If further studies and the collection of other cases confirm the validity of oxygen-ozone therapy as an adjuvant to standard care, oxygen-ozone therapy could help save more lives and would also benefit hospitals dedicated to the care of Covid-19 positive patients, especially in terms of patient recovery speed».

 

It is also worth noting that all the interventions made by dr. Franchi for practicing oxygen ozone therapy were done completely free of charge.

 

The costs of using the machines and bags to carry out the MAH were also covered free of charge by SIOOT.

 

Concluded Dr. Franchi: «The compassionate protocol provides for free treatment and in any case my service aimed to heal the lady regardless of the costs».

 

Thanks, Dr. Franchi, Prof. Franzini and Dr. Nessi.  Your interventions not only contributed to saving a person, and as the Talmud says “whoever saves a life saves the whole world”, and this action has fueled the hope of assisting in the best way the other therapies already recognized and proven to defeat Covid and other viruses to come.