When I was a baby, I contracted spinal meningitis and had to be on positive pressure for about 3 years. Positive pressure was a nightmare! Someone always had to be on watch making sure the respirator was doing its job correctly. My parents were always afraid of the respirator malfunctioning and their fears came true. The respirator inhaled without exhaling which blew a hole in both my lungs and collapsed them. The machine had blown me so full of air that my face, head and body looked like a balloon. The doctors had to insert little needles into my veins, I guess to release all the air. Needless to say, it was scary for my family to see my like that!
When we were introduced to the Iron Lung, all those nightmares vanished because we found negative pressure was a safer means of respiration. Like the Iron Lung, the Porta-Lung is safe because it is in harmony with a human’s breathing pattern. The nice thing about the Porta-Lung is that it gives me enough strength to be out of the machine during the day so I can go about my life! If the pressure gets too high or too low, the ventilator will sound an alarm in warning, but there are very few times when we encounter problems. When there is an electrical storm and the power goes out, the machine shuts off but with our trusty surge protector, this never affects the machine. I can breathe on my own so when the machine shuts off in a power outage, it doesn’t affect my lungs in any way. It is very safe. I like to be in the Porta-Lung anywhere from 11 to 13 hours a night. That’s what my body is used to.
If you have any questions about using the Porta-Lung, you can email me at submarinesusie@portalung.com. I’ll be happy to answer questions that relate to my experience in using the Porta-Lung.
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