The Hubbard Tank!

The year is 1980 and a patient is lying on a portable stretcher which is hooked up to a liffing mechanism.

He's screaming in pain, even thogh, pain medication was just administered in quite a high dose.

"OK, We're going to be raising you up, and then,  swinging you over to the tank, and then we are going to lower you into the tank." says a male voice.

A soft grinding noise starts up, and the patient's stretcher is raised up into the air, and then gracefully swung over to the top of a large stainless steel tank.

He is then lowered into the hot water very carefully and then the process of debridement begins.

This patient who was severely burned in an explosion now must undergo treatment at the burn Unit, in a very large hospital and so every single day,  the patient will be taken down to the room that is commonly referred to as  "The Tank Room," and he will  undergo the very grueling process of burn debridement, or "Tanking," as some hospitals often refer to this procedure as.

The patient even though he has received painmedications, will remember the whole process every day, and no doubt, when He  is out of the Burn Unit, and no longer faces the tanking process, he will be very very thankful, because the debridement process is often very very painful, and in severe burn cases, takes up to two hours to complete the process of scraping, scrubbing, and cutting away dead tissue!

What you've just read, was an example of what might have occured if you were severely burned in the 70s and in the 80s and somewhat in the 90s.

The tank that this patient was lowered into, was known as a Hubbard tank.

You might be asking, "What in the world is a Hubbard tank?"

Well, this tank, is a very special tank that was invented in the year of 1928 by the American Engineer, Carl Hubbard.

It consists of a large stainless steel tank, which contains one or more turbine driven whirlpools, or as I'll often refer to these as, Turbinated, Whirlpool.

Some Hubbard tanks have hoses that connect to the whirlpool, for a more portable whirlpool massage.

When patients are burned very severely, the dead tissue must be removed in a process known as debridement.

Every day, for a period of weeks, or even months in some of the most severe burn cases, the patient is wheeled down to the Tank Room, and back then, he was lowered into the Hubbard tank.

Now days, the debridement method consists of more like a shower setup.

If you were burned severely now days, you might be loaded onto a stainless steel plastic covered shower stretcher, and taken down to the debridement room, and there you might be wheeled under a series of hoses that were used to aim the water directly onto your burned skin.

This Hubbard tank though, is essentially a very fancy whirlpool tank that can be used for debridement, or for aqua Therapies, such as might be observed in  Physical Therapy.

Back in the 50s, when Polio, reared it's ugly head, and when tank respirators, or better known as Iron Lungs were used, the Hubbard tank was commonly used for a recovering polio patient, to massage their limbs and to exercise them, after being immobilized in bed for very long periods of time.

After my deep research in burns lately, I've come to like the name Hubbard.

I've teased people and told them that Hubbard would be a nice dog, or cat, or EVEN BABY name, and that if there was somebody who needed help with naming a pet, or a baby, I could, and would be willing to help.

I even gave one of my friends the idea of naming his pet krab Hubbard.

Although, now, If I got a dog, or a cat, and named him myself, He would probably be named Aaron Hubbard.

Aaron is a very sweet name.

The pet's middle name would most certainly sound good though.

LOL.

Hubbard tanks not only consist of a whirlpool driven via a turbine, but also a lifting mechanism, whether that be a manual, or a mechanical lift that can raise and lower a patient, into, and out of the tank, and this can be done with a sling, so that the patient can go into and out of the tank sitting, or it can be performed with a stainless steel water proof stretcher, so that patients can go into the tank lying down.

Why was this done?

Well, patients were often so sick, that they wouldn't be able to walk up to the tank, and then get in.
Take for example, a patient who's just ben in an extremely serious fire, burned from head to toe.

Number one, they are most likely going to be sedated, and possibly intubated and on a mechanical ventilator, so you cannot expect a sedated patient to be able to walk over to the tank, and get in.

Number two, patients who are burned severely, are not going to want to walk on what could possibly be their seriously charred feet.

Number three, in cases of immobility, such as in Polio, patients who went to the Hubbard tank, couldn't walk obviously.

This is why most if not all tanks are going to have some sort of mechanism to lower the patient into the tank, and then, after the procedure has been completed, to raise the patient out of the tank.

So, if you were ever burned in the 70s, 80s, and maybe the 90s, and you ended up having to go to the Burn Unit, if you remember a large tank than chances are, you have been in the Hubbard tank.

I don't know what inspired Carl P. Hubbard to invent this very high tech whirlpool tank, but the important thing is, that the tank has been used to help many many patients.

Thank you, and May God Bless you, and Keep you, and may his ever lasting love surround you, your family, your friends, and all that you come into contact with on a daily basis.

Remember.

His mercies arenew every single day!