Tag Archives: Texas

Katrina Can Be Our Lesson. For Some of Us – Without Oxygen, We Are Dried Out Old Toast

The Katrina Photos belong to Pamela O’Flynn, RRT, MBA Respiratory Care Department Director, Harrison Medical Center.  I copied a few of them with my digital camera and am showing them here.  They are stark yet show the shared bonding of people sharing the same vivid experience of no supplies, no help and patients looking for assistance and medical supplies.

Picture Pam’s Katrina hit hospital here in her photo as one of our hospitals after an earthquake – Harrison Medical Center or any hospital.  Harrison is lucky to have Pam’s experience – and Anne Brown too –  to lead their preparedness thanks to their hospital  experience with Katrina.
I’d like to see the Kitsap Sun partner with Pam and Harrison Medical Center and our oxygen companies for an Emergency Town Hall Seminar and video tape it for those citizens who can’t get there in person.  The people need to understand and put together emergency plan and be prepared for the earthquake we know is coming or any emergency where we must be self sustaining for at least 72 hours..
Folks on supplemental oxygen need a plan too – without oxygen, we’re yesterday’s stale toast.
Above is the old generator…that didn’t work until some talented person fixed it and it ran the hospital and the new one failed.
A brand new generator flown in to the hospital by helicopter – donated by a Texan.  I knew Texas was home to world class quarter horses and we know Texas is a big state – now we know Texas people have a heart as big as the great outdoors too.
Thank you, Angela Dice, you are not only a good writer – you know computer stuff too!   Brian Lewis, Kitsap Sun Web Programmer fixed my photo woes!  Thank you both!  It worked, Brian – here they are.
More later… Sharon O’Hara

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Does Oxygen Take a Bad Rap?

Patients have a vested, personal interest in taking charge of their own health.
Our doctors help us medically but they cannot teach us how to live with whatever we have.
They cannot tell us to ignore shortness of breath – to exercise through it to achieve a quality of life we can feel slipping away.

Active, forward, informative patient support groups can and do inform and educate to give us the choice between living a quality life and just existing.

I am not on oxygen, but many lung patients are. The following is taken verbatim from the online support and advocacy group that taught what no one else was teaching – what COPD patients can do to help ourselves.

I have permission to use the following…

Mark Mangus, RRT and active educator on EFFORTS (www.emphysema.net) is one RRT who thinks outside the box.
(Harrison Medical Center has one to tell you about another time)

The following comments are on oxygen use.

Mark is responding to Tommie, an oxygen patient commenting on a previous post from Mark:
.
… they can be up to date on most everything else and still be misinformed on this matter.

It took years to become what it is today…it will take years to reverse and eliminate it…. this myth pervades across several professional lines, so it is a multi-focal,multi-front problem…

Mark W. Mangus, Sr., BSRC, RRT, RPFT, FAARC
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coordinator
Christus Santa Rosa, Medical Center
San Antonio, TX
mark.mangus@christushealth.org

Responses reflect my positions and opinions alone and do not necessarily represent the positions or opinions of Christus Santa Rosa Health Care.
…
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 3:09 PM
To: EFFORTS@EFFORTSLIST.ORG
Subject: [EFFORTS] Old School Thinking

Mark’s quote:

“But, they are likely stuck in the school of those who still believe that using too much oxygen can decrease your drive to breathe and cause you to stop breathing – – – the “myth” I’ve discussed so many times over the years.”

****
> I had my PCP tell me this very thing last Thursday! That if I turn my 02 up too high, my body would think I had too much 02 and my brain would send a signal telling it not to breathe!!
I had always thought he was very up to date … I’ve also had 02 suppliers say the same thing.
Too bad, we can’t get rid of this “old school thinking”. …
If your PCP has told you the same thing, please discuss this with him/her.

Thank you EFFORTS, Mark, Tommie.
Sharon O’Hara

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post