Relying on medical oxygen is a serious matter, and the thought of your equipment failing at home is bad enough. But if you are traveling and your oxygen supply fails – well, to most oxygen users, that’s just unimaginable. But accidents and incidents do happen, and knowing what to do – how to cope in the minute, how to arrange a replacement or repair and – if necessary – how to get yourself safely home and back into your usual supply chain. Anything from a power outage, an oxygen leak, or a device malfunction can be enough to stress you out – unless you have a plan B and know exactly what to do next.
This guide will help you to prepare for the unexpected and explain how OxygenWorldwide can assist you during emergencies. After all: even the best equipment can fail – what happens next depends on how quickly you respond!
Common Types of Equipment Failure
Battery failures or dead back-up batteries. This can be especially prevalent with portable oxygen concentrators (POCs) which rely on batteries for their operation. In fact, the answer to most internet queries phrased something like: what to do if oxygen concentrator stops working are answered with responses about checking the batteries, the contacts, the charging base and so on!
Power supply issues in hotels and apartments. If you need a power point close to the bed to use your equipment and you’ve checked to make sure there is one, only to find that it’s not working or isn’t the right kind for your equipment, you can feel quite stuck.
Broken tubing and cannulas can mean that you cannot use your oxygen when you need to, or that you risk losing some precious airflow and wasting your oxygen supply, which then means that you might run out before your next delivery is due.
The equipment you use can also suffer from malfunctions, such having the alarm sound for no reason or having issues regulating the flow.
Liquid oxygen is very cold and sometimes there can be problems with the oxygen freezing in the tubes causing issues with airflow, venting or both.
Immediate Steps to Take
- First of all, stay as calm as possible. Panic and stress uses more oxygen, so staying quiet and calm will help you get through the hiccup in your supply more easily
- If you have a back-up system, set it up and use it, if necessary
- If you are in your home country, contact your regular equipment and oxygen supplier
- If you are abroad and stuck, contact OxygenWorldwide right away
- If any of your symptoms worsen, seek local medical attention promptly. It is infinitely better to head off a medical crisis rather than try to deal with it once it’s properly underway
How OxygenWorldWide Supports Oxygen Users in Emergency Situations
We have an especially strong presence in Europe, where we can offer same-day or next-day replacement equipment and oxygen. We can also help our customers to find local oxygen suppliers so they can keep themselves topped up. Our multi-lingual assistants can offer advice in several languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Dutch, among them so your medical oxygen emergency support will not come with the usual language barrier than can mar attempts at conversation abroad!
Our existing customers’ information is saved into our secure database, so we already know your preferred equipment types, flow rates and other details. Having this information at our fingertips means that we can intervene for you much quicker in an emergency.
For new customers, we will do our best to gather the right information and help you as quickly as possible depending on availability and circumstances.
Prepare Before You Travel
Always carry spare consumables such as cannulas and tubing. These small but vital parts are so necessary to the smooth working of your oxygen supply equipment that it would be unwise to risk your only ones becoming damaged or lost.
Charge all batteries full before traveling, both those in the equipment and any spares (of which you should ideally have at least two sets waiting to be pressed into action). As soon as you run one set of batteries down, it should be a high priority to recharge them as soon as you can.
Keep your oxygen prescription and emergency contacts (your details, as well as those of your medical team, next of kin, holiday rep or tour guide etc) printed and stored with the equipment. Not only will this help you if it goes astray in transit, but it can help identify you, should you suffer a medical emergency, and guide the local medics as to how best to treat you.
Similarly keep OxgenWorldwide’s contact information on hand – in your phone or wallet, somewhere easy for you to access in a hurry.
And finally, make sure that your accommodation knows that you are an oxygen user and what power points you will need and why. Impressing on them the urgency of your requirements will help them to understand how best to meet your needs.
When to Call Emergency Services
Having a chronic medical condition can make it hard for you to judge when you need immediate medical intervention. This can mean that you might leave it too to receive quick and easy treatment. If you experience any of the following symptoms, don’t delay at all and call emergency services sooner rather than later: severe breathlessness, chest pain, dizziness or confusion. If your lips, toes, fingertips or fingernails turn blue, treat your condition as extremely urgent. This symptom is called cyanosis and it happens when your blood oxygen has dropped to concerning levels and it requires immediate treatment.
In conclusion, it can be worrying to be away from home and with oxygen equipment that is not behaving as it should. But you are never really alone with OxygenWorldwide, even when suffering from oxygen equipment failure abroad – although you may feel that way at first. But once you contact OxygenWorldwide, you will soon be calm and feeling supported once more. Technical issues happen all the time, but they don’t need to ruin your trip or put you at risk – and with the right support, you’ll soon be back on track, enjoying your time away from home with all the supplies you need for good health and comfort.
OxygenWorldwide has supported thousands of oxygen users through unexpected issues ranging from equipment failures to supply snafus, and we’ll soon smooth your path once again. We will do everything possible to keep you safe and supported while you travel – and we’re very good at what we do!
If you need urgent help or planning support? Contact us here. No matter if you are looking for advice and guidance, the details of an oxygen supplier or to rent equipment for your flight, we can offer friendly and excellent advice.
