KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- An Olathe veteran is working to get costs covered for other vets on a treatment that could help them recover from PTSD or traumatic brain injuries. Blake Richardson joined the Marine Corps after graduating from high school. He deployed twice to Iraq and once to Djibouti and it wasn’t until he returned from active duty that he realized how much it affected him. “I had started realizing that, you know, something wasn't right. I started dealing with PTSD symptoms,” Richardson told FOX4. He said that the treatment he had been receiving for years was not working. Missouri man missing since June freed from Syrian prison “For a while I was hopeless. I didn't know where to turn,” he said. “I just kept taking meds, you know, like I was told to. And, you know, going through the therapies, group therapies, individualized therapies, and just wasn't getting what I needed out of it.” It wasn’t until nearly 10 years after he left the Marine Corps that he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. He said, it started to impact his relationship with his family. “It was hard to, you know, even be around them, because I felt like I wasn't being a good dad,” Richardson said. “And, you know, but I thought it was just me come to find out it, you know, it was just an undiagnosed brain injury, and it can be healed.” It wasn’t long before he learned about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT. After reading into its effectiveness for PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, Richardson found a clinic in the Kansas City area that would help him cover the expensive price tag of the treatment. “It's it was kind of intimidating, you know, going in there and seeing this big old tank, you know, it looks like a submersible,” Richardson told FOX4. “And, you know, you put a bag on your head with breathing and 100% pure oxygen.” It did not take many sessions, or dives, for Richardson to see the effects of the therapy. “The second dive I started sleeping without any medication and that's when my life I knew my life was going to change," he added. He said the changes were almost immediate, eventually almost eliminating his symptoms from PTSD and his brain injury. And he’s seen it work for other veterans as well. “I've also had guys go in there with the same stuff I was dealing with,” he said. “You know, another traumatic brain injury comes out of there, same results, you know, off all off their medications. I mean, that’s huge," he said. Richardson is working alongside state representatives in Missouri to introduce HB 262, sponsored by Kansas City-based representative Chris Brown. The bill would create a “Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Treatment and Recovery Fund” aimed at reimbursing facilities who provide HBOT to veterans at no cost. Brown told FOX4 that “HBOT treatment is healing the brain organically, without drugs. So many times, vets are given hard drugs to deal with mental issues which unfortunately can just lead to more problems. HBOT actually is working to heal the brain itself.” See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri While their work continues, Richardson says that the future of HBOT could expand beyond just veterans. “I’d love to see hyperbaric, outside of the bill, covered by insurance and in the FDA,” he said. “The data is there, the research is there, we just need more people to see that there is this information out there and there's other alternatives.”