Home Based Oxygen Machine

In February of 2020 (just before the pandemic of COVID-19 outbreak and hard lock down of South Africa), my husband of 25 years was diagnosed with COPD and RVH.

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make it difficult to breathe. Damage to the lungs from COPD can not be reversed or cured. People with advanced/acute COPD use home based oxygen therapy.
• Right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) is a condition defined by an abnormal enlargement of the cardiac muscle surrounding the right ventricle. The right ventricle is one of the four chambers of the heart. It is located towards the lower-end of the heart and it receives blood from the right atrium and pumps blood into the lungs.

Long-term oxygen administration is the only treatment that slows down the progression of pulmonary hypertension in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This means that my husband needs 4 to 5 liters of oxygen supply per minute, which is provided by a home based oxygen concentrator machine. His oxygen levels are between 72% and 81% at any given point during the day. At night when I measure his oxygen levels, there has been instances where it has gone down to 43%. When he sleeps it is the worst. When a persons oxygen levels drops below 60% organ damage occurs. Anything below 50-40% the organs start shutting down.

This past year has really been a very difficult road for our family, Nols (my husband) was admitted 6 times in the past year to ICU for fluids on the lungs, lung infections and low oxygen levels. And from his last admission to hospital on 16th January 2021, his lungs have deteriorated since February 2020. His doctor has informed him that if the deterioration continues at this rate, Nols can expect about two years of normal living (with an oxygen machine), but the two years to follow will be of poor quality and also his final years. If we are able to get an oxygen machine, Nols will be able to improve his quality of life and also extend the inevitable, but at least he will have a few more years with his loved ones.

Unfortunately we can not afford a home based oxygen machine, and we desperately need assistance in the form of donations to make this a reality. I am really scared that I will lose my husband and that our teenage boy will grow up without a father, our family really needs a home based oxygen machine, without it, Nols will not see his next birthday (August). This will truly save his life, and our family.