{"id":23143,"date":"2026-03-18T17:13:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=23143"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:18:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T23:18:04","slug":"oxygen-therapy-compassion-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/18\/oxygen-therapy-compassion-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxygen Therapy, Compassion, Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ISAIAH FRIZZELL<\/em><\/p>\n

When you encounter someone who absolutely gets it, the divine spark of life we all share crackles and you realize a beautiful and crucial happening. Connection. Community. Cohesion. Genuine spokes in the wheel of community suddenly appear from the mist. Humble, appreciative, generative and wildly attentive, this is Phil Rainey.<\/p>\n

From Many to One, One Becomes Many<\/strong>
\nRainey has lived in the Wood River Valley for over 45 years, with family throughout. Traveling as a child, he perhaps fortunately attended several high schools, encountering a wide range of cultures. From all known studies, and personal experience, we understand this type of exposure to a variety of peoples tends to instill a degree of empathy in the traveler. Empathy and compassion, completely, describe Rainey.
\nTrained in the U.S. Navy, he then for 11 years was a deep-sea diver for the U.S. Army. This diving experience would foreshadow a divine future. Community-minded, Rainey had a natural calling to become a firefighter\u2014captain, in fact\u2014even receiving the Hailey Firefighter of the Year in 2014. After 34 years of service in our community, Rainey retired just this month.<\/p>\n

Oxygenated Elegance<\/strong>
\nYou\u2019ll directly meet and speak with Rainey at his Hyperbarics of Sun Valley clinic on River Street in Hailey. This is how he saved the life of his then wife. In Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), injured tissue needs more oxygen and the chamber\u2019s pressurization increases O2 absorption over three times higher than normal air pressure.
\n\u201cMy second wife ended up with osteomyelitis, a bone infection, from a surgery she\u2019d had. I did research and found out that [HBOT] was a treatment for it. There weren\u2019t any non-hospital-based [HBOT] facilities in Idaho at the time, so I decided, you know, shoot, maybe that\u2019s something I should get into.\u201d With great success, he did. He\u2019s successfully treated extreme injuries in athletes, ex-military\u2014anyone with distress that\u2019s difficult to treat\u2014while also becoming a Superman to his wife.
\nHis business began in the year it was thought (via the Mayan calendar debacle) the world would end, 2012. \u201cThat was when I opened the doors,\u201d Rainey laughs.
\nUpon entering his exquisitely captivating and calming center, you rightly understand his philosophy and vibe: the reverberating flow of intelligent care.<\/p>\n

Forward Thinking as a Prerequisite<\/strong>
\nWhere you might also meet Rainey is via his work as an active community member with strong, common-sense ideas and as an elected Blaine County Republican Central Committee (BCRCC) Precinct Committeeman.
\nForward thinking is where Rainey lives. \u201cAnother little project I\u2019ve got going on [is] there\u2019s a focus group that is working on a power-grid-down scenario. So what happens if we lose the power grid? As far as we can tell\u2014and we met the other day with one of the county commissioners\u2014is that there is no plan.\u201d
\n\u201cThe fire department doesn\u2019t have a plan. Nobody really has a plan for the long-term, like, a week, two weeks, or more. If the power grid goes down, what do we do? You know, the whole medical side of it, supply chain, all of it.\u201d
\nFor people to even admit the reality of it is tough, understandably so as it\u2019s a dark (pun intended), and ultimately unsettling, topic of conversation but a very real one. We\u2019ve seen it during hurricanes, during large fires and now with threats from \u201chackers.\u201d Electronic doors don\u2019t open, refrigerators warm up, houses freeze in the winter. Shouldn\u2019t we, as a strong and thoughtful community, have this discussion?
\nEver the optimist and with a sharp mind, Rainey reminds, \u201cYou\u2019re camping.\u201d People move here for that very thing. However, there\u2019s a lot that comes into play when everyone\u2019s camping. And so, as intelligent, resilient people we come together with a plan, not necessarily for those who have their bug out spot, but for those who don\u2019t. Seniors, the disabled, family members in need. It\u2019s a fair and extremely compassionate consideration.<\/p>\n

Phil Rainey\u2019s Hyperbarics of Sun Valley
\n613 North River Street
\nHailey, Idaho 83333
\n208-928-7477<\/p>\n

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