Use of CPAP in emergency for covid treatment when oxygen is not available

[chunkyfrog]

Thank you pugsy.
The urine smell was overpowering.

[GrumpyHere]

Deleted.

Sorry, I should be more self restrained.

[colomom]

O2 tanks are heavy, flammable, and won’t last most people more than 1 night (how long it lasts is dependent on the amount of O2 used). I’m also pretty certain that most (if not all) airlines don’t allow O2 tanks onboard the airplane.
Your best bet is a portable concentrator. Both my son and Mom use supplemental O2. Although they both had scripts for O2 their experiences were that when they decided to go outside of insurance and purchase O2 concentrators out of pocket, in both of their cases they were told not to worry about having the doc send the company a prescription, it wasn’t required. Here at high elevation in Colorado people can buy pony O2 tanks without a prescription at the grocery store, we also have O2 bars where you can pull up a chair and purchase 15 minutes or so of delicious fruit flavored O2.

To add O2 to a CPAP you pretty much just need an adapter that has a little oxygen port and fits between the CPAP machine and the hose. O2 is O2, there is no specific model of concentrator that works with a any specific CPAP machine.

That said, the idea of your friend choosing to travel to India when travel there is discouraged and considering spending spending $2695 on an O2 concentrator to keep them safe just incase they get sick while there is disturbing. Thousands of people in India are dying every every day because of a scarcity of medical beds and O2. For your friend to ignore travel advisories and risk adding themself to a medical system that is already strained beyond it’s breaking point and to risk bringing new variants back to their home country when they return is ill advised.

[GrumpyHere]

To add O2 to a CPAP you pretty much just need an adapter that has a little oxygen port and fits between the CPAP machine and the hose. O2 is O2, there is no specific model of concentrator that works with a any specific CPAP machine.

Don't forget the power adapter plugs.
The power supply may be universal but the plug shapes are generally market specific.

The O2 connector
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/oxygen ... nt-adapter

[klm49]

I have a family friend traveling to India that is using an Autoset 10 for her.

I recall that at least with this machine since it's the same I have, that you can add oxygen to it.

Although cpap machines aren't meant to be used as oxygen concentrators, you can add oxygen to it.

And I read this article: https://www.contagionlive.com/view/exis ... 9-patients which indicates that a study was done and if you are given cpap+oxygen treatment immediately at time of hospitalization, it can increase your chance of survival if you have acute respiratory syndrome. This is a big deal in India since that syndrome is common and oxygen (and hospital beds) are very difficult to come by at this time.

Since my friend already has a valid RX for the cpap, can I also somehow source the oxygen to give to her to use in case of emergency? Hopefully she'll never have to use it or be in a position where it's used.

If yes, what exactly do I need to buy to get oxygen for this cpap model?

My alternative is to recommend that she purchase an oxygen concentrator, and I took a few minutes to search and found the the AirSep Focus Portable Concentrator which is lightweight and small, but also costs around $2695.

Travel cannot be avoided--I've already had that talk.

I believe if you do research you will find you can not use an Air Sep focus with a CPAP. You need a portable that produces continuous flow oxygen and the Focus is a pulse dose machine. Yes you need to have prescription to buy an Oxygen Comcentrator or portable oxygen You may be able to but bottles but nobody will fill them without an RX. You can't take O2 bottles on a plane. Maybe this will help you: https://www.pulmonarypaper.org/portable ... hart-2019/

[palerider]

There's a lot of welders out there that'll be really surprised to hear about that.

@SleepGeek

Just because I asked you ONCE to stop posting nonsense,
you think I am palerider????

Wow, wow, just wow.

Seriously.

[palerider]

SleepGeek wrote: ↑
Wed May 12, 2021 6:37 pm
Said another way - while O2 IS O2 I doubt that "your" insurance is paying for that "Large" welders bottle of O2.

They come in all sizes.

Nice to see you using sentence structure again.
Insurance is NOT paying for welders O2 in ANY size, period.

You're the only person that's mentioned insurance.

Show me where YOU can get Concentrators w/o an RX.

I bought both my brother's on craigslist.

[palerider]

O2 tanks are heavy, flammable, and won’t last most people more than 1 night (how long it lasts is dependent on the amount of O2 used). I’m also pretty certain that most (if not all) airlines don’t allow O2 tanks onboard the airplane.
Your best bet is a portable concentrator.

There are plans on the net from an enterprising group that have documented how to *build* your own oxygen concentrator.
Some links:
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/24/a-simpl ... ore-parts/
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/10/buildin ... t-science/

That said, the idea of your friend choosing to travel to India when travel there is discouraged and considering spending spending $2695 on an O2 concentrator to keep them safe just incase they get sick while there is disturbing. Thousands of people in India are dying every every day because of a scarcity of medical beds and O2. For your friend to ignore travel advisories and risk adding themself to a medical system that is already strained beyond it’s breaking point and to risk bringing new variants back to their home country when they return is ill advised.

Well put.

[colomom]

There are plans on the net from an enterprising group that have documented how to *build* your own oxygen concentrator.
Some links:
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/24/a-simpl ... ore-parts/
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/10/buildin ... t-science/

No doubt many who either need or would benefit from O2 therapy simply can’t afford it. While building a concentrator is beyond my mechanical abilities, it looks pretty amazing. So cool that brilliant people take the time to figure out how to build something so many could benefit from then share that valuable knowledge!

[palerider]

There are plans on the net from an enterprising group that have documented how to *build* your own oxygen concentrator.
Some links:
https://hackaday.com/2021/03/24/a-simpl ... ore-parts/
https://hackaday.com/2021/05/10/buildin ... t-science/

No doubt many who either need or would benefit from O2 therapy simply can’t afford it. While building a concentrator is beyond my mechanical abilities, it looks pretty amazing. So cool that brilliant people take the time to figure out how to build something so many could benefit from then share that valuable knowledge!

Indeed. I've been seeing reports of that project in a number of places, it's another of those 'take things into your own hands' sort of projects.

I've *repaired* concentrators, but building one seems like a pretty cool thing... I will say that they need a muffler on the exhaust though... that thing's *loud*.