Day 488 - James' Suction Machine Died
Monday, May 2nd, 2022 James played a lot with his toys. Mom worked on insurance issues, supply orders, and doctor appointments. You know besides laundry, meds, bottles, dishes, feedings, G-tube venting, the usual. If you find yourself with nothing to do, then you're forgetting to do something. Over the weekend James' suction machine died. This is an emergency, and can be a life or death situation. A patient can get a mucus plug or choke on their secretions. Without a working suction machine, you would need to disconnect the patient from the ventilator and use a catheter to suck out any secretions with your mouth. It is awful but in an emergency you will do what you need to do. It turns out the DME supply company does not have any portable back-ups. Not surprising whatsoever! They do have a non portable suction machine, the size of a car engine and sounds like a lawn mower. They said they could send someone from Melbourne by this evening to drop it off. Well the delivery driver ...