Thank you Martin at Rescuean!

[DCBC]

With due respect to the Rescuean and the OP, if you're going to buy something, why not an emergency O2 kit? I think this invention is great, but I'd be more interested in having the requisite O2 available. Medical O2 is an essential part of a divers kit. Instructors are required to have it available during training, most dive boats I've been on have it. I don't dive without it. Perhaps this is a cost benefit thing, but I don't try to save money on emergency equipment. The best thing to have available is 100% O2, why settle for less?

 

[Thalassamania]

The website for the pod states that:

"... but we are also taught that other appropriate and effective emergency treatment such as rescue breaths, the use of a regulator to supply nitrox to a responsive patient, CPR, etc., is invaluable and can greatly benefit a patient, maybe even save their life ..."

I would be very interested in any references that might be available concerning the claim that: "the use of a regulator to supply nitrox to a responsive patient is invaluable and can greatly benefit a patient"

Still waiting for that reference.

 

[denisegg]

With due respect to the Rescuean and the OP, if you're going to buy something, why not an emergency O2 kit? I think this invention is great, but I'd be more interested in having the requisite O2 available. Medical O2 is an essential part of a divers kit. Instructors are required to have it available during training, most dive boats I've been on have it. I don't dive without it. Perhaps this is a cost benefit thing, but I don't try to save money on emergency equipment. The best thing to have available is 100% O2, why settle for less?

I now own an AL40 oxygen deco bottle. The Pod provides positive pressure flow when attached to the oxygen bottle using a LP port from the 1st stage and it allows you to use it with more than one tank or any tanks of enriched air that is available.
In my case I needed the positive pressure flow and that is what DAN told the doctors to do when they were contacted after I arrived at the emergency room. With the oxygen attached it becomes like a portable Cpap for a diver who has almost lost the ability to breathe, which I had. The cardiologist told me I was moments from being put on a respirator when I reached the hospital.

In answer to the question about Nitrox from a regulator, that is all we had at the scene. I believe the mix was around 40%. After I got out of the water and my drysuit and was on the ground I started breathing from the nitrox tank with the regulator until the ambulance arrived and I believe it helped. My chest hurt and I coughed for hours after I got out of the water, even with the 02 in the ambulance and the Cpap at the hospital. It took a while for anything to calm my breathing but the nitrox through the regulator did seem to help.

 

[Cave Diver]

With due respect to the Rescuean and the OP, if you're going to buy something, why not an emergency O2 kit? I think this invention is great, but I'd be more interested in having the requisite O2 available. Medical O2 is an essential part of a divers kit. Instructors are required to have it available during training, most dive boats I've been on have it. I don't dive without it. Perhaps this is a cost benefit thing, but I don't try to save money on emergency equipment. The best thing to have available is 100% O2, why settle for less?

You can take a 100% O2 deco bottle and hook it up to this to provide constant positive pressure oxygen delivery. Most of us already drag enough gear on trips and having something like this allows us to use what we've already got out during an emergency.

Would a full on O2 kit be better? Probably. But this is damn site better than what most people carry now, and considering the size and the convenience I think more people would carry one of these.

 

[DCBC]

Would a full on O2 kit be better? Probably.

Not probably, absolutely!!

 

[D_B]

Because of the low cost of this, more people would likely be able to get one, and have it on them

Because I cant afford an O2 kit

but I could afford one of these

... yes, an O2 kit would be better, and I would love to put one together, but I'm not getting one anytime soon
That's not scrimping on safety equipment, that's just the way it is in the real world

 

[DCBC]

Because of the low cost of this, more people would likely be able to get one, and have it on them

Because I cant afford an O2 kit

but I could afford one of these

... yes, an O2 kit would be better, and I would love to put one together, but I'm not getting one anytime soon That's not scrimping on safety equipment, that's just the way it is in the real world

To be fair, I'm not aware of the cost of this unit. That said, I've purchased O2 units that have been in-use by ambulance services, reconditioned with cylinder, mask and regulator for $150. You can get something new between $350 to $550 (DAN).

I don't know about you, but when I look at the cost of other pieces of diving equipment I own, it's minimal. My decompression computer alone is worth $1500 and I have two.

Anyone who needs emergency oxygen, should have emergency O2 (100%). If you want to purchase a system that provides an 11% increase in the O2 level, go for it!

Medically, 100% O2 is much better for the treatment of the victim. Some will want to save a few bucks, but this remains to be seen. Emergency O2 is cost effective. Why settle for less?

 

[D_B]

it's $35

I can do that, many can do that .. that's the point

I can not do an O2 kit, many can not do an O2 kit (although reconditioned amb units are a good idea and will be doing more research)

 

[Cave Diver]

To be fair, I'm not aware of the cost of this unit. That said, I've purchased O2 units that have been in-use by ambulance services, reconditioned with cylinder, mask and regulator for $150. You can get something new between $350 to $550 (DAN).

I don't know about you, but when I look at the cost of other pieces of diving equipment I own, it's minimal. My decompression computer alone is worth $1500 and I have two.

Anyone who needs emergency oxygen, should have emergency O2 (100%). If you want to purchase a system that provides an 11% increase in the O2 level, go for it!

The system says it provides an 11% increase in O2 level over just using rescue breaths (presumably using air as the drive gas). It also says that it can deliver oxygen percentages as high as 80% with the use of deco gasses.

Can you take a full O2 kit with you when you're hiking into the woods to dive some remote access location? Can you take it underwater with you because you don't want to leave it in the back of your truck at a busy dive site? Would you rather see 10 divers carry something like this because it's convenient, easy and cheap or have 1 with a full O2 kit? If it's your ass on the line would you refuse help from someone carrying one of these while you waited for the person with the "real O2" kit to finish their dive and unlock their car?

Medically, 100% O2 is much better for the treatment of the victim. Some will want to save a few bucks, but this remains to be seen. Emergency O2 is cost effective. Why settle for less?

This from the same person who defended the use of spare air by saying the following? Hello pot, meet kettle.

If anyone condems a piece of equipment that can provide you with enough gas to do a safe ascent to the surface, I have to question their judgement. Yes there are other redundant systems that provide more gas. Some choose to travel with these, others don't. I have used these systems, but will carry a Spare Air in some circumstances. No diver should be critisized for the make, model, or type of equipment they choose to carry. In diving this is a freedom that is similar to diving caves, wrecks, deep air, whatever. It is the diver who decides the type of dive he does and the equipment he chooses to purchase to do it. Hopefully, the dive will be done within the diver's capability and safety envelope, including the appropriate equipment for that particular dive.

 

[mike_s]

:lol: