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.
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.