Alright, I finally got around to doing a follow-up video to my first Masimo Emma video. The one where I promised a live patient with a vent? Yeah, that one.
Without further ado:
This is my longtime friend Brock – he’s on a vent due to his Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which, by the way, is a crappy disease. Not like there are lots of great diseases, but this one is pretty terrible.
Incidentally, the MDA is doing a lot of great work in this area – they can be found online at mda.org and if you feel so inclined, please think about donating.
At any rate, he’s on a vent all the time, and for those of you curious, I’ve reproduced a photo of his vent circuit here:
The teal bit is the speaking valve, AKA Passy-Muir valve, and is the reason I didn’t get any ETCO2 on my Emma device the first time I hooked it up.
Next is the HME (heat and moisture exchanger) that helps keep the trach better moisturized, and then the whisper swivel, which I go over in the video.
Please feel free to contact me here or on social media if you have questions about this or any of the other items I test – I’d love to talk with you!
-Tim