During hurricane season, power outages are a commonplace. For most people, these power outages are an inconvenience. For those on oxygen therapy, it can be more concerning. Being prepared for a hurricane is paramount – especially for oxygen therapy users.
With a little bit of planning, you can prevent having unnecessary stress during an already stressful situation. We have created a list of things to consider when making your preparedness plan.
As many of you may have heard (or even unfortunately experienced), a hurricane, deemed “Harvey,” hit the coast of Texas, near Corpus Christi. The long road to clean-up and recovery is just beginning for many.
Natural disasters, such as flooding, can be extremely dangerous for people of all ages, especially if you suffer from any lung or breathing related illnesses. Even after the flood water recedes, there are conditions that can put your lung health at risk. How can you stay safe during these uncertain times? Keep reading for our top five things you’ll want to know during a flooding weather emergency.
Using supplemental oxygen can be a life-saving therapy for many people. However, with the benefits comes responsibilities to using your machine safely. One of the most dangerous activities you can do around oxygen is smoking. The reason oxygen is so dangerous is because while normal air has 21 percent oxygen, supplemental oxygen can deliver up 90 percent pure oxygen, which can create an environment where fires can easily ignite and burn very quickly.
Oxygen concentrators are very safe to use, but just like with any piece of electrical or mechanical equipment they require some basic safety measures you will need to take if you are using one. Any electronic device can be a potential fire hazard, and fire is fueled by oxygen, which is produced in a pure form by oxygen concentrators. It easy to prevent fire or other hazards from happening.
Just finding out that you do need oxygen therapy, or you might need it, can be a scary thing. It doesn’t need to be so scary though, since it should be treated just like any other type of medication. Your doctor is the only one that can say if you need to use oxygen therapy, so you should heed his or her advice over all. If you’re curious about how oxygen therapy is prescribed and why, here are a few facts on the subject.
Why do I need oxygen therapy?
Medical oxygen therapy is necessary when you cannot bring enough oxygen into your lungs to disperse throughout your body. Every cell in your body needs oxygen, and if you aren’t getting enough, your health will begin to decline pretty quickly. Even if you aren’t getting enough oxygen over the course of a few days, you will begin to feel very run-down. Feeling run-down will lower your quality of life, and over time, lack of oxygen will cause your organs to fail.
An oxygen concentrator is an electronic, and as with all electronics, you have to practice a few simple safety measures while using it. The fact that it puts out a very pure form of oxygen also makes it a special case, and more volatile than other medical machines. It’s still a very safe piece of medical equipment to use, and our portable oxygen concentrators are even safe to use on airplanes, as approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
You’ll stay safe if you just follow a few simple safety guidelines while using your oxygen concentrator. You can find even more safety instructions in the owners manual of your oxygen concentrator.
Staying away from heat and flames is the most important thing you can do to stay safe while using an oxygen concentrator. Oxygen itself won’t explode or combust when coming in contact with flames. It’s a non-flammable gas, and won’t go up in flames like gasoline fumes. However, a high purity of oxygen feeds a flame quicker than regular air, and you know how quickly a flame can ignite just in the air in a room.
The middle of winter can be just as dangerous as the middle of summer, with the extremes in temperature that can occur during these times of year. Dangerous cold weather can be rough for anyone of any age and for those who are young and healthy, but can be even more so for the elderly, and for those who have chronic diseases. It’s important to know what to do when the frigid weather moves in and to have a plan.
Not only can you start to become ill during very cold weather, but there is also a danger of slipping on ice if you go outside, or if the power goes out due to wind or ice, you will be in real danger of hypothermia.
Oxygen itself has many more health benefits than dangers, but like most good things in life, other factors can come into play that can put you in danger. Luckily, these things can be easily prevented and avoided by taking a few simple safety measures.
With anything that produces or holds pure oxygen, you need to stay away from heat and flame. Oxygen does not explode or combust, and this is a common misconception. Fire feeds off of the oxygen in the air around it, so if there is a high concentration of oxygen to come into contact with, the fire will spread much more quickly and burn hotter. Even a small spark fed by pure oxygen will quickly turn out of control and result in a house fire.
One of the main points of owning a portable oxygen concentrator, is so you can travel and go anywhere you please, while still getting the oxygen therapy you need. While all of out portable oxygen concentrators are FAA approved for airplane travel, you may decide to take a road trip to get where you need to go.
Road trips with oxygen are about the journey as much as they are about the destination, and they allow you to take in the country side as you go from one destination to the next. We don’t want you to miss out on anything, but we also want to make sure you are safe, you’re getting the oxygen you need on your trip, and your oxygen concentrator will continue to work properly.
Despite the positive health effects you will get from using an oxygen concentrator or compressed oxygen, there are still some risks and dangers that need to be considered. This is a refresher, since your doctor or medical supply provider will go over all the safety precautions with you, and help you set up at home.
Dryness and infection in airways. You might experience a dryness in your nasal passages or your throat while using your oxygen concentrator or oxygen machine. You can even develop dried balls of mucus in your airways, which are dangerous because they can block your airflow.
