Richard D. Heimbach, MD, PhD
On June 24, 2000, Richard D. Heimbach, MD, PhD formally retired as the Medical Director of the San Antonio Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center. After his second retirement, the distinguished physician, an icon in hyperbaric medicine, is now focusing on improving his golf game and working with local dive shops to ensure that local divers are physically fit to dive.
Dean Heimbach is a native of Chicago, Illinois. As a child he knew that he wanted to enter the medical profession. His father was a physician whose office was in their home in a small suburb of Chicago. He declares that he was in college before he knew that there were any professions other than medicine.
His First Career
Doctor Heimbach received his MD at the University of Chicago in 1960, completed an internship at Presbyterian-St Luke’s Hospital in Chicago, and returned to the University of Chicago for a residency in radiology. He was taken from his residency in 1962 when he was drafted into military service under the Doctor’s Draft Act. The Air Force made him an offer that he could not refuse and assigned him as Chief of Radiology at Ellsworth Air Force Base, North Dakota. After 18 months of service, the Air Force sponsored him for a PhD in Radiobiology at New York University, where he received an Alumni Award for Scholastic Excellence. He was subsequently assigned to Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, where he conducted radiobiological research for the Air Force.
Doctor Heimbach had obtained his commercial pilot’s license at an early age, encouraged by several of his family members who flew aircraft. An opportunity to become a Flight Surgeon prompted his career decision to remain in the Air Force. He attended a Residency in Aerospace Medicine (RAM) at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and was sent to Harvard School of Public Health to obtain a Masters in Public Health (MPH). In 1974, he was Board Certified in Aerospace Medicine by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. He became interested in Hyperbaric Medicine through discussions with Doctor Jefferson C. Davis, who was his RAM advisor. It was a perfect fit for his professional background and his personal interests in aviation and diving.
Dean had become interested in diving at the age of 17. He was a member of his high school swim team, a lifeguard, and a water safety instructor. In 1953, an uncle convinced Dean to star in his documentary movie on a new sport called "SCUBA diving." The uncle had acquired the first "Aqualung" that was imported into the United States, and convinced Dean to learn to use the newly acquired gadget. "I flew to California, and after one hour of instruction in a swimming pool, we took the equipment, drove to La Paz in Baja California, Mexico, and made the movie. I am convinced that the only thing that saved our lives was because the film was in Technicolor, necessitating that the dives be done in very shallow water where the colors were not filtered out."
Follow-on dives were made without a scuba regulator. From a high pressure air cylinder held under the arm, air was released into a cupped hand that was positioned at the nose and mouth. "The air was a little wet, but it worked just fine." He finally got some legitimate scuba equipment while in college. In 1975, after twenty-two years of diving, he received his PADI Scuba Certification when he completed a course with Captain Don at Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Since that time, he has been an avid scuba diver, has provided medical support for local dive shops, has been a frequent lecturer on diving medicine topics, and has provided consultation and/or treatment for hundreds of recreational divers with diving-related disorders.
Doctor Dean Heimbach was a colleague of Doctor Jefferson C. Davis. In 1974, when Jeff convinced the Air Force Surgeon General to establish the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Brooks AFB, Texas, Dean was selected as the Director of Medical Operations. Preceding the current certification process, he created a Fellowship for Hyperbaric Medicine Physicians and a Fellowship Program for Hyperbaric Nurses and Hyperbaric Technicians. With scientific papers, textbook chapters, and service within professional societies, he made major contributions toward the creation of the hyperbaric medicine specialty. Upon Jeff Davis’ reassignment in 1978, Colonel Heimbach became Director of the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Center, where he served until his retirement from the Air Force.
His Second Career
In 1982, Doctor Heimbach entered private practice with his colleagues, Doctors Jeff Davis and Jared Dunn. Three years earlier, they had established a wound care and hyperbaric medicine practice at the Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. "No one has had an easier retirement! With an afternoon off from the Air Force, I started work the next day in the same type of job, in the same town, and with the same people (Air Force retirees). The only difference was having to decide what to wear each morning."
At the time, it was the only civilian wound care and hyperbaric medicine facility in South Central United States. Within three years, a second multiplace chamber was added at Methodist Hospital, and within five years the practice had expanded to the Nix Medical Center in San Antonio. The combined service is known as the San Antonio Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Center.
When Jeff Davis died in July 1989, Dean became Medical Director of the Center. In the twenty years of his private practice, Doctor Heimbach supervised about 160,000 patient treatments in approximately 7100 patients. "Daily wound care that emphasizes cleaning, debridement, and early detection of infection are important aspects of an effective wound care program. These, with hyperbaric oxygen treatment of patients who present with tissue hypoxia, remain the foundation for successful wound healing." He has been instrumental in helping change the focus of hyperbaric medicine. "Today’s focus has changed from simply providing hyperbaric oxygen therapy to directing an overall patient management approach."
Dean Heimbach has paid his dues within the various professional societies. He and Jeff Davis are the only individuals who have served as President of both the Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA), and the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). He represented the ASMA in the creation of the first certification exam in Aerospace Physiology in 1977. He represented the UHMS in the creation of the first physician certification exam in Undersea Medicine that was administered by the American Board of Preventive Medicine (ABPM) in 1992. He was a member of the examination committee who created the first certification exam in Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine that was administered by the ABPM in 1999. For his clinical contributions, he has been honored with the prestigious Boerema Award from the UHMS, the Jefferson C. Davis Memorial Award from the Gulf Coast Chapter of UHMS, and the Mederi Award from the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine.
Following Doctor Eric Kindwall, Doctor Heimbach became the second Chairman of the UHMS Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Committee. He took the lead in developing a method for subject matter experts to have input into the decision-making process to establish the UHMS-Accepted List of Indications for HBO2. As Committee Chair, he was instrumental in HCFA accepting the UHMS list as their approved list of indications in Section 35-10 of the Coverage Issues Manual. Of all the 14 current indications, Heimbach thinks that the success yield in radiation injury has been the most exciting success for HBO2. "The combination of HBO2 with specific surgical techniques has taken an intractable and awful medical condition to end up with a success rate of about 97 percent."
What Next?
Upon reaching the age of 65 in March 2000, Doctor Heimbach celebrated his second retirement. Dean quips " I am now to the stage where I can hide my own Easter eggs and still enjoy the hunt." He and his wife, Jackie, retiremented in San Antonio, Texas. Dean spends most of his time with the three G’s: gardening, golfing, and growing grandchildren. He has 6 children and 9 grandchildren. As the three G’s permit, he will continue his active support of the recreational diving community.
Present
Dr Heimbach is the “Public Member” of the NBDHMT Board of Directors, and represents the direct and indirect users of certificants’ skills/services. He has been a consumer of the certificants skills and services and has a background in public advocacy.
