Feeling lost ...

[sima]

My mother in law was diagnosed in Nov. 2007 and decided to leave NY and go to India to receive homeopathic care/treatment. Unfortunately, she never got to the treatment center because only 2 weeks after arriving in India, she was admitted to the ICU with resp. failure. It's now been over a month that she has been in the ICU. She's been on and off the vent and bipap but now it looks like the bipap is not working as well for her and she will require nighttime ventilation. She has a trach as well as a peg.

The doctors here feel like there is not much they can do for her in the hospital now. My husband and I are eager to bring her back to NY. But it's what happens once we reach NY that scares us.

We'll have to fly with a medical team consisting of at least one doctor and nurse and once we get home, we would like to get round the clock nursing care for her at home. I just don't know how to go about this. With the time difference between India and NY and always being at the hospital, it's been quite difficult to get in touch with the nursing organizations.

We will also need a portable vent. I've been hearing that this is very difficult to get because of the training involved with it. If our nurse is trained, is that good enough? I fear that if I need to be trained, then we won't have a portable vent ready for her at home and she will have to be admitted straight to the hospital once we land in NY.

Any help and information would be greatly appreciated. Everything has been progressing so poorly and so quickly and my husband and I were not ready for this. Now being in another country has only complicated things more.

 

[CindyM]

Hello Sima. I am sorry for all that is happening to you and your family. I know some members have had experiences with portable BiPaps so perhaps you will get some pointers soon. I just wanted to welcome you and tell you I hope things work out soon. Cordially, Cindy

 

[quadbliss]

Hi Sima,

I received my vents in hospital, and my wife and other family members were trained on their use before I was allowed to check out. I am afraid I have little to offer in this area except to say, if you can find someone to teach you, its really not that tough.

I can, however, offer some hardware recommendations. I would recommend the Pulmonetics LTV 950 ventilator. It is small (about the size of a laptop computer), and fairly easy to operate. You will also need lots of battery power for such a long flight. In the past, this was accomplished using sealed lead acid batteries. These are bulky and very heavy. The modern solutin is the Lithium-Ion battery. Smaller, and much lighter, they are easier to maneuver around airports and airplanes. At my current vent settings, I can run about 7 hours on an 18 Ah battery. Be sure to include unexpected delays when calculating your battery requirements.

Mike