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22/11/2007: "HENRI BOURCE AT WORK .......... chamber service (1997)"

Henri ran a medical re-compression chamber service in Melbourne, treating patients following spider bites, gangrene, lung problems and slow healing wounds.

I tested the often suggested hangover treatment of breathing oxygen to relieve the headache.

One Sunday morning we breathed what I assumed to be pure O2 under pressure equal to about 27 feet depth for 60 minutes .

There was little or no positive effect worth recommending.

The $200 fee for one hour was probably cheap.

By 1997 when this picture was made, Henri was in advanced stages of the leukemia which was to later take his life.

To combat phantom pains (itches and aches etc.) in the lost lower half of a leg, Henri learned self hypnosis soon after his 'accident' as he called the shark attack.

The effect was, he could explain how the shark bit his leg off and almost turn the incident into a joke.

Sometimes at parties late at night, hopping around a dimly lit room with his half leg protruding from his trouser fly, the artificial leg and shoe still attached inside his trousers. Get the idea?

Women would scream.

So convincing was his attitude to living normal life, I once criticized him (this man with one leg) for parking in a disabled persons parking space.