"Not kidding!"
Posted on 10/11/2019 5:36:27 PM PDT by fruser1
Northern California fire officials say a man dependent on oxygen died about 12 minutes after Pacific Gas and Electric shut down power to the area as part of a massive effort to prevent fire.
El Dorado County Fire Chief Lloyd Ogan said Friday that fire personnel responded to a call in Pollock Pines that came in after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.
He said crews arrived to find an unresponsive man in his 60s and were unable to revive him.
Ogan said the man's oxygen equipment required power but could not say whether the shutdown was related to his death.
PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said it has not been able to confirm the accuracy of the report.
The machines have alarms.
Yes, you get multiple tanks. Dozens, generally, depending on need. The concentrators are frequently bulky, heavy, and stay bedside (or comfy chair-side in the family/living room), while smaller tanks are used for moving around the house, into the car, at the grocer’s, etc.
Are there small concentrators? Smaller than a lunchbox? Yep. But they’re too pricey for most people, also have limited battery life, etc.
Keep in mind that, like with any medical condition requiring continuous dosing, it’s up to the PATIENT to figure out how best to manage the home arrangements. The finer details of location, access, sorting out tablets into daily, twice daily, hourly containers and not getting the things mixed up.
It’s up to diabetics, patients with COPD, renal failure, whatever, to OWN their illness and management thereof.
Many of these pts are old, frail, unable to accomplish much of the normal “housekeeping” for which there are visiting nurses, home health aides, the oxygen suppliers have people who come by to set up, explain, instruct, refit, relocate devices, etc.
As someone else mentioned, alluded to even, it’s possible, likely, this slight anoxic “insult” and ensuing panic was enough to drop his oxygen levels to thepoint of asphyxiation.
When I did anesthesia years ago (tried, dropped out of residency, was like working 3 full time jobs), the sleep apnea patients were the worst to wake up after surgery, their O2 saturation could drop into the 50s, CO2 upwards of 60-70 and they wouldn’t wake up. Little e-stim to their masseter muscle usually did the trick. Emphysema patients were a lot like this too.
One of my patients I do home visits on has shown me he can tolerate O2 saturation in the low 70s and still carry on a conversation. Me? I’d be unconscious.
I tell my O2 dependent pts to ALWAYS keep a spare bottle by the bed. Literally takes seconds to plug in to from whatever you sleep with.
California needs to be put under military occupation, as it might be the former Confederate states during “Reconstruction”.
Just went through 5 days of no power over a wind storm that never arrived. Lost all the food in the freezer. I thought it was stupid when the power went out in a dead calm, but that passed into Socialism when 3 days later, after they admitted there was no wind in the Sierras, the power was still ofg.
Surreal, Real third world this week. Entire cities shut down for hundreds of miles over nothing.
No roaming blackouts, half the state for many days for no reason. Most people assumed that when the wind storm was over they would restore power. Not only did they kill the power in a dead calm, they left it off for days.
It’s insane.
Dreadful. RIP.
It may be that some people who are asleep don't wake in time when they are suffering from a lack of oxygen. That is, for example, why carbon monoxide poisoning is so dangerous. If you are sleeping your body doesn't notice the initial symptoms.
Another victory for California’s 3rd world socialist gov’t.
There are battery back ups to oxygen generators—that’s one. number 2- most local power cos. ask people to register if their power is mandatory for respirators, O2 generators— they make contact well in advance of shutdowns that they manage, and in the case of a hurricane, storm whatever— they also know these people’s locations.
Apparently not in Californication.
PG&E does have that info on anyone with Medical needs, they are suppose to contact you if Electricity going off or possible shutdown. Either they failed to contact Him are He failed to heed their warnings.
MY GOD!!! HALF THE STATE!!!!
I can’t believe what I’m reading.
I don’t know why the story didnt grab me earlier.
I guess i couldn’t imagine a US state having that kind of problem.
But i’m sure NY will sooner or later but i’ll be in PA by then.
I am sorry for your ordeal
All the food lost. Damn i’m sorry
Blame us when our equipment starts fires? We’ll show you! You just won’t get any power if there is any wind. (Except the big cities. We need their political power.)
Conspiracy theory: depopulate northern california and give it to a) the chinese as a down payment on our debt, b) the draco reptillians and bigfoot who already may live underground up there, c) the illuminati for their 2024 solar flare hidey holes, d) the owls, e) the climate change green new dealers.
"Not kidding!"
A line only a California Leftist would believe. Criminy, how stupid do they think we are?
I agree, of the wife and child and other family members who knew damn well that power would be cut, because they had lots of warning, but were more concerned with getting their sleep instead of making sure dad had oxygen................but of course you probably mean to blame people who were not actually responsible.
Sadly when they sue its coming from the tax payers, change it to where they sue the politicians personally
You forgot the mansion on the 1000 acre wooded estate for re-Greta, her parents, and her handlers.
Thanks for the detailed answer. I understand a person’s condition is with them 24/7 and their life must account for it.
Even perfectly healthy people encounter the random event, or sequence of events, that lead to their death. If you have a risk, the probability is simply mathematically higher for you. I think most were prepared which is why, for now, there’s only one report of this not hundreds. This guy could’ve been prepared too and just the “lucky one” falling victim to the odds.
Per this person, even with alarms and nearby bottles, reacting in time from sleep sounds pretty dicey. Most people don’t have the militaristic training to provide a good reaction to address surprises. For myself, with no conditions, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to take a leak and I’m a lead balloon fumbling around. I can only imagine a no-air situation piled on top of that.
But even without patient factors, this story strikes me because I’m an engineer. I don’t like to see things designed to break. Usability is important, not just for machines, but for processes.
Unlike a random storm or earthquake cutting power out there, where there’d likely be more situations like this, this one is completely man made. The design of their “system” precipitated all of this. They are maintaining their grid predicated on a false belief of environmental harm. It’s not just the hardware, it’s the regulation driving operations. That’s what comprises their “system” and it is designed to fail.
So I’m generally in agreement with you. The patient is responsible for their condition. My beef here is more with the predicates.
So much social media traffic, not sure if this is in this thread or not, but it bears scrutiny.
What you said. And more.
Lights are going out because (no order of precedence):
1 - radical environazis prevent necessary tree/brush clearing
2 - PEPCO - a “public” utility - really really doesn’t want to spend billions in lawsuits, settling suits and the state isn’t granting indemnity
3 - it’s California, fires happen, they’ve always happened, moreso since humans stopped allowing them to happen regularly to remove excess brush and deadfall.
4 - don’t forget that a LOT of fires are set by arsonists, terrorists (I seem to be the only person on the planet who can recall the so-called palestinians putting the torch to millenia-old cedar forests in Israel a few short decades ago and this being part of the Manchester al qaeda manual).
5 - having a backup plan is vital, for individuals, for businesses, states, countries. Proper management of funds and environment are vital. California needs to be sued in federal court for supporting, protecting, defending, financing a foreign invasion rather than use money the rest of the country has poured into it for what it’s been intended like infrastructure construction/repair/maintenance.
6 - California, like Venezuela, should stand as a shining example of exactly what happens when “progressive” (democrat, socialist, communist) “feels” are applied to nations, nation states, states, and cities, schools, communities, families.
FWIW.
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