Oxygen Smart

As a child I was fixated with Jacques Cousteau, the french marine explorer - innovator - documentary and film maker. And one of the things that always struck me, apart from his accent when pronouncing “Calypso” his ship, was that he had co-developed the aqua-lung. This is the tank contraption that allows divers to breathe underwater with much greater mobility.

A design revolution in its time as it replaced those heavy, cumbersome oxygen suits that were anchored by weights and resembled some sort of deep sea monster from a Jules Verne novel. I always thought of them as the “missing [...] Continue Reading…

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Oxygen therapy refers to the administration of supplemental oxygen to patients suffering with a chronic or acute situation.

A chronic condition happens and develops over a period of time. For example emphysema - part of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease set.  An acute condition makes a sudden appearance and then disappears - which means getting better or getting worse. Another example a sudden attack of asthma can be an acute attack.  On the other hand someone with asthma can have a chronic situation that becomes acute when it flares up.

Supplemental oxygen is administered in many emergency situations - and this [...] Continue Reading…

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POC’s (portable oxygen concentrators) were introduced around 2002 and have become a major player in the oxygen therapy area.  These are machines - and they include larger models as a home based stationary unit, or smaller portable ones, that do not store oxygen but recycle it instead.  They are powered by electricity and what they do is extract oxygen form the air around and then deliver it at higher concentrations.

As they were specifically designed for oxygen therapy patients who lead active lives, portable oxygen concentrators are benefiting thousands - making it easier to move about, to plug wherever there [...] Continue Reading…

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One of the great restrictions on mobility that long term oxygen therapy patients had was being able to travel.  Taking a trip for vacations or any other reason was a major problem.  The difficulties came from two sources:
1.    The oxygen delivery system.
2.    Transport restrictions.
Oxygen tanks and oxygen cylinders have to be stored safely and at the same time are usually limited in size for public transportation systems.  In airplanes for example, you could not take your oxygen tanks with you and had to depend on the airline’s oxygen policies.

But things are easier now with portable oxygen delivery systems and [...] Continue Reading…

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Portable oxygen concentrators have changed many things for people who depend on an external oxygen supply. Revolutionize is perhaps too strong a word, but they definitely have changed the lifestyles of many people for the better. A few years back you hardly ever saw anyone on the streets carrying or pulling an oxygen delivery machine, but this is now much more common.

Most people don’t need additional oxygen except at very high altitudes so it is not easy for them to realize the difficulties patients on oxygen therapy have to go through – especially regarding moving about.

Just a [...] Continue Reading…

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