Wayne with his sister, Dr Lynda Heap
On 13 July 2004, an already weak and emaciated Wayne began the gruelling experience of 1-2 sessions per day of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBO) treatment. The treatment itself was the easy part. For Wayne, the most agony came from the transition in and out of his hospital bed: first into a wheelchair, down a lift, then into a car for the painful journey across town to the Oxygen Therapies clinic in Beach Road, Auckland City. Here Wayne lay, exhausted, on a stretcher in the HBO chamber, beside a medical attendant who sat with him through the treatment. At the conclusion of each 2 hour session, the whole agonising process was repeated in the reverse. And so the cycle continued.
After Wayne's 13th HBO session on 20 July, MRI scan No.7 (see images below) showed that the abscess in his brain was 10% worse than the MRI scan that had been taken three weeks before. Doctors suggested that Wayne's family take him home to live out his last days.
On 6 August, following his 34th HBO session, MRI scan No.8 showed that the abscess in Wayne's brain had reduced by 30%. Wayne began to show visible improvement. He could now sit up and read during treatment - a great change from his overwhelming fatigue in earlier sessions.