Risks Blocked Hyperbaric Chamber Use : Medicine: Complications in Lakin’s fight against ‘flesh-eating bacteria’ made use of oxygen therapy unwise, friends say.

While funeral plans for the respected chancellor of Ventura County’s community colleges were completed Tuesday, family friends and a doctor moved to quell the controversy about the medical treatment Thomas G. Lakin received for a “flesh-eating bacteria” infection.

Dropping blood pressure and potential nerve damage prevented doctors from treating Lakin in a hyperbaric chamber in the hours before he died, friends close to the educator’s family told The Times on Tuesday.

Lakin, who died Sunday at Los Robles Regional Medical Center from necrotizing fasciitis, could not undergo treatments in the pressurized oxygen tank because physicians were more worried about stabilizing his blood pressure, the friends said.

Physicians did not identify the bacteria until they operated on Lakin’s infected leg Saturday night.

After complaining of a sore throat for days, the chancellor went to the Thousand Oaks medical center emergency room on Friday, but was sent home hours later after initial treatments.

Lakin returned to the hospital on Saturday, complaining of continuing soreness in his throat and severe swelling and pain in his right leg. Doctors on Sunday lost an all-night battle to save his life.

J. B. Wilmeth, director of the hospital’s hyperbaric unit, has questioned why Lakin was not treated with the technology, which has been used successfully on five patients with the same ailment this year.

On Tuesday, Wilmeth declined comment except to say his previous statements were not a criticism of how the Lakin case was handled, since he had no firsthand knowledge of the circumstances.

“You know more about the case than I do at this point in time,” he said. “I’m just not making any more comments. There are some obvious reasons from my standpoint. It’s just not worth getting into anymore.”

Family friends said that employing the hyperbaric chamber, which uses oxygen to kill the bacteria and prevent it from spreading, was not a medical option available for Lakin.

“There was an extremely low blood pressure, and the medical team was focused on maintaining the blood pressure to help him survive,” said one close friend, who asked not to be identified. “The decision not to use the chamber was consistent with his condition at the time.”

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Basing their decision on doctors’ advice, the Lakin family opted to fight the fast-moving infection by amputating Lakin’s right leg and administering large doses of antibiotics, friends said.

Lakin was anesthetized, and the surgery was performed late Saturday.

During the procedure, nine doctors struggled constantly to keep the chancellor’s blood pressure high enough for him to survive.

Meanwhile, friends said, Lakin began exhibiting signs of potential nerve damage that could have permanently affected his motor skills even if doctors had been successful in removing the bulk of the infected tissue.

After the leg was removed, doctors found that the bacteria already had spread to Lakin’s chest and left arm. A short time later, he was placed on life-support systems, where he remained for more than 12 hours before dying Sunday afternoon, friends said.

One of the physicians brought in to treat Lakin as his condition worsened Saturday defended the care given the 50-year-old educator, particularly the decision not to use the hospital’s hyperbaric chamber.

“It’s not as easy as that,” he said, speaking on condition that he not be named. “The primary treatment for that is surgery. There are a million other things that can be done, (but) surgery and antibiotics are the primary care.”

The family friends and physician commented Tuesday to quiet a controversy begun Monday, when Wilmeth questioned why he was not summoned to help treat Lakin. Wilmeth said he has treated five other Ventura County patients afflicted with the bacteria over the past six months, and that each had survived.

Hospital officials have declined to discuss details of Lakin’s treatment, citing a request for privacy from family members, who will not speak publicly about the case.

Jeff Marsee, a vice-chancellor of the Ventura County Community College District who has served as the Lakin family spokesman since the tragedy, said it is unfortunate that questions about treatment have interfered with their privacy.

“The family’s desire for privacy is focused entirely on protecting the small children,” Marsee said, referring to Lakin’s two young daughters. “It was not intended to reflect the competency of the physicians or the medical center.”

Medical experts outside Ventura County on Tuesday said the decision to use surgery and antibiotics was the appropriate treatment.

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Carol Peterson, a physician in the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services acute communicable disease control division, said she has seen little information about using hyperbaric chambers to fight necrotizing fasciitis, the scientific name for the infection that destroys living tissue.

“I can maybe recall one publication where it was suggested,” she said. “Intuitively, it seems like it might help, but this organism is not one of the ones we might call an oxygen-hating bacteria.”

For funeral services, Lakin family members and friends will gather in the chapel at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills at 9 a.m. Saturday.

College district officials have scheduled a separate memorial service for the chancellor at 10 a.m. Monday on the lawn between the district office and the H. P. Wright Library on Day Road in Ventura.

“It’s going to be a chance for the employees of the district and residents of the county to join together and honor Thomas’ memory,” district official Barbara Buttner said.

Times staff writer Mary F. Pols and correspondent Matthew Mosk contributed to this story.