COVID-19 AND OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS

Covid-19 & Oxygen Concentrators

By now, we all know that COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic that can be devastating to a humans respiratory system. Thankfully, most people that contract this disease can recover with minimal effects. However, it can be extremely devastating and even deadly to many, especially if they are immune comprimised. Typically, COVID-19 patients that are admitted to a hospital, are administered high purity oxygen to saturate your lungs with as much oxygen as possible, to keep your O2 levels in your blood as high as possible. Sometimes a ventilator is also needed. We will focus on the Oxygen Concentrator useage for this article.

When COVID-19 started to spread around the world, news headlines everywhere made it very apparent that this was a possibly very dangerous and deadly respiratory disease. The scramble to source enough Ventilators and Oxygen Concentrators meant that availability of these items became very scarce, very quickly. Hospitals were struggling to take in new patients as they were already overrun with COVID-19 positive patients, and had to resort to putting multiple patients in a single room, and also placing them in the hospital hallways. Manufacturers stock of new Oxygen Concentrators and Ventilators was depleted extremely quickly. To this day almost two years later, they are still struggling to meet demand for new Oxygen Concentrators. This problem is also compounded by worldwide supply chain shortages and massive price increases for critical components used to build these machines.

WHAT IS AN OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR?

Oxygen Concentrators are a self contained machine that takes in the ambient air from the room around it, removes most of the nitrogen and exhausts the nitrogen back into the ambient air, and send the high purity oxygen to the patient. Oxygen Concentrators can deliver up to 5 Liters Per Minute of volume, with some high capacity machines being able to deliver up to 8 Liters Per Minute or even 10 Liters Per Minute of oxygen flow! Please check with your Doctor for the amount of Oxygen that you need. If you need 10 Liters Per Minute, a single 5 Liter Per Minute machine will not be enough. But if you only need 2 Liters Per Minute, paying for a 10 Liter Per Minute machine may be overkill. Oxygen Concentrators are designed to produce between 87% to 95.6% pure oxygen at any flow rate setting.

WHAT OPTIONS/UPGRADES SHOULD I GET?

With Oxygen Concentrators there are not many options or upgrades available. If you are shopping for a machine, if not already included, I would highly suggest shopping for a machine with the built in "Low Oxygen Purity" sensor. This is an internal sensor in the machine that constantly monitors the output oxygen. If the purity ever dips below 87% (minimum allowable purity to be considered medical grade) then the yellow "Low O2" light will illuminate. This will let you know there is a problem. It is possible that it could be caused by dirty filters, and it is also possible that the machine needs repairs. It is best to call your service provider when this occurs.

Aside from needing basic Oxygen Tubing and either a Nasal Cannula or Face Mask to breathe the oxygen, you should not need much else. Many people want to use a Humidifier Bottle to moisten the air that they breathe, since the oxygen coming from the Oxygen Concentrator is very dry. You should ask your Doctor if this is a wise idea to add moisture to your lungs if you are battling with COVID-19.