My Friendly Ventilator

Is a ventilator a pain in the neck? Does it take over your life? The answer is: No. A ventilator isn’t meant to be an albatross around the patient’s neck. In many cases, the ventilator is a burden because people don’t know how to use it. My hope with this blog is to let people know that the Porta-Lung is a respirator worth trying. It can be made to be more user friendly. Ordinary people without any medical knowledge can learn to use a Porta-Lung with simple instructions from Porta-Lung experts.
My vent is my friend as long as it runs smoothly! It is my breath of life, and in a way, it has become part of me, as I am dependent on it for its assistance during the night. I read in an article online that most doctors and health professionals don’t think ventilators improve a person’s quality of life. The most common reason is a “poor projected quality of life.” When we talk about the NEV-100 and the Porta Lung, I would have to disagree. In my case, I wouldn’t be alive today if I didn’t have a NEV and Porta Lung so I would say my quality of life has improved from using it.
The article reports how clinic directors underestimated the satisfaction reported by those who use ventilators. In a life study by John Bach, he compared responses of 80 muscular dystrophy ventilator users with responses by 273 MDA clinic directors. The study concluded that patients who were perceived by physicians to have a poor quality of life were less likely to be offered assisted ventilation. How can physicians be so sure that these people’s quality of life would not improve, if they were offered assisted ventilation? How is the phrase “poor quality of life” to be determined? Some may think that those with any handicap have a poor quality of life. However, it has been proven those with handicaps can have a better quality of life, if they use a ventilator, especially a Porta Lung.
I recently talked with a young man who has muscular dystrophy and uses a Porta Lung. He is very happy with it and would not want to change to another type of ventilator, if he doesn’t have to. He has used the Porta Lung since the early stages of contracting the disease and likes the way it feels. I agree with his opinion.
In a 1992 study by Bach and Campagnolo of 395 ventilator-assisted people who had had polio, 86 percent reported their lives were characterized by hope, value, freedom and happiness. The Porta Lung gives hope and a sense of value to the individual in that its breath work is reliable and allows the user to be their own person while on the machine.