Richard Pryor was dubbed an iconoclastic comedian who in 1980 had been on a marathon drug binge when he suffered third-degree burns that covered his torso. He acquired these injuries in an explosion while freebasing cocaine. Pryor was in agonizing fight for his life at the Sherman Oaks Community Hospital Burn Center in Los Angeles. Twice a day, he was placed in a hyperbaric chamber which is a cylinder that forced pure oxygen into the body to speed up the healing process.
