A story first and then another with an ethical question.
Just back from my favourite - by dint of being the only - Southampton sleep clinic. This time they decided to notice that the machine settings are not what they were when they gave me the machine. So a nurse other than the one seeing me, being a man, I suppose, decided I needed a lecture on the dangers of DIY CPAP. The reason I absolutely must not alter settings myself is in case I explode my lungs. If I were to increase the pressure setting and then the machine malfunctioned and gave a pressure of 22 cm and exploded my lungs, I would not have legal redress with the NHS. So, apart from being dead, I could seek compensation from the NHS if they adjusted my machine and it gave a pressure in excess of its maximum and exploded my lungs?
Memo: e-mail 'MythBusters' and ask them to discover the pressure at which human lungs explode in a living person.
Second story: as last year, they don't dispense mask parts, only complete masks. Again I wanted a new silicon interface and a new headgear and, again, came away with a complete mask. Not only but also, last year they supplied a large mask with a medium headgear and lo! this year they handed me the same deal. A search of the big box of Quattros revealed that all the large masks came with medium headgear. And, in fact, lurking in there we found a box of separate headgear. You guessed it - all medium.
There is a 'Components Card' in the plastic bag with each mask, gives all the item numbers for each size of all the parts of a mask.
Ethical question: I now have for a Mirage Quattro mask two unused medium headgears and a used (but clean and not damaged) large mask complete except for interface and headgear. Strictly speaking, they are the property of the NHS but the NHS don't want them. Does anybody else want them?
TF
Just back from my favourite - by dint of being the only - Southampton sleep clinic. This time they decided to notice that the machine settings are not what they were when they gave me the machine. So a nurse other than the one seeing me, being a man, I suppose, decided I needed a lecture on the dangers of DIY CPAP. The reason I absolutely must not alter settings myself is in case I explode my lungs. If I were to increase the pressure setting and then the machine malfunctioned and gave a pressure of 22 cm and exploded my lungs, I would not have legal redress with the NHS. So, apart from being dead, I could seek compensation from the NHS if they adjusted my machine and it gave a pressure in excess of its maximum and exploded my lungs?
Memo: e-mail 'MythBusters' and ask them to discover the pressure at which human lungs explode in a living person.
Second story: as last year, they don't dispense mask parts, only complete masks. Again I wanted a new silicon interface and a new headgear and, again, came away with a complete mask. Not only but also, last year they supplied a large mask with a medium headgear and lo! this year they handed me the same deal. A search of the big box of Quattros revealed that all the large masks came with medium headgear. And, in fact, lurking in there we found a box of separate headgear. You guessed it - all medium.
There is a 'Components Card' in the plastic bag with each mask, gives all the item numbers for each size of all the parts of a mask.
Ethical question: I now have for a Mirage Quattro mask two unused medium headgears and a used (but clean and not damaged) large mask complete except for interface and headgear. Strictly speaking, they are the property of the NHS but the NHS don't want them. Does anybody else want them?
TF

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