Refilling Oxygen Bottles

kimig1


Joined: 22/06/2008
Posts: 73

Message Posted:
30/08/2009 14:10

My husband now needs oxygen on a regular basis - refills at least once a week,sometimes more often. We live in Alsancak.

A friend drives me to Lefkosa Hospital, which my doctor said would refill the bottles for us, subject to a lot of walking around between various offices, all of which deny knowing where anything else is, paying at the impossible to find Vezne, and getting lost in the depths of the hospital. This often takes 2 hours. It is then necessary to go back the following day to collect the refilled bottle - another trek, another hour or so.

Now I appreciate that the medical system here is for the locals - a nice lady in one of the offices refused to help because I wasn't a citizen, and I had to go and see the chief of staff to get permission. This palaver needs to be done for every visit.There have to be lots of aging folk here who need oxygen - surely there must be a local manufacturer somewhere, who can deliver to us, subject to a small fee?

CAN ANYONE HELP,PLS Tx Kim

yorgozlu



Joined: 16/06/2009
Posts: 4437

Message Posted:
30/08/2009 15:39

Hi,

I have just spoken to my brothr-in-law who has worked in Lefkosa Hospital in case I could be of any help.

The bottles can only be refilled there if you have been refered to them by your doctor.

He cannot do much in order to help as it would put his job at risk.

But,I live in Lapta and was thinking that I'll come with you next time you need to go there,so that we can worked out exactly where you need to go and speak tyo who?

May be that would make things bit easier for you .



my no :0533-873 9181

Regards

david123


Joined: 07/07/2008
Posts: 393

Message Posted:
30/08/2009 19:13

Hi,



You could try the local dive schools, they have to have oxygen bottles on hand and they need to be refilled for the use when divers with decompression illness etc.



These will need to be filled with 100% oxygen at a proper filling station.



Hope this helps.



David

roisin


Joined: 19/03/2009
Posts: 358

Message Posted:
31/08/2009 22:27

Try The BRS They may help. Have you also tried your local chemist ? If you have a prescription they may be able to order it for you as they do in UK.

Tenakoutou



Joined: 27/07/2009
Posts: 4110

Message Posted:
29/11/2009 10:50

kimig1: Make sure your cylinder is being filled with medical oxygen - not industrial (as in use for welding).



Yorgozlu's offer must be the best - very generous of him!



david123: 'oxygen used for decompression sickness ('bends'): I shudder to think how a serious 'bends' victim would fare after driving from Girne, over the mountain, to the Lefkosa decompression chamber - oxygen, or not, the victim would probably be worse (or dead!) before he/she got there.



What's your opinion?

Jonesy299


Joined: 07/02/2009
Posts: 367

Message Posted:
29/11/2009 14:39

Re 'decompession illness' DCI / compounded by altitude changes etc military / civilian divers have the ability to calculate the probability of developing DCI and can take into account changes in altitude etc. Oxygen administration during the transfer of the casualty is an important factor and the time taken to recompress again. Significant changes in altitude will have an adverse effect but the 'thru-mountain' road from Girne to Lefkosia is unlikely to be a key causal factor for death.



The aim is to have a safe dive and avoid the onset of DCI altogether!!!

Tenakoutou



Joined: 27/07/2009
Posts: 4110

Message Posted:
29/11/2009 15:38

Jonesey299/Msg6:



'The aim is to have a safe dive and avoid the onset of DCI altogether!!!' - and so it is!



However, dive tables and computers do not calculate for an individual's physiology. It is a known fact that a regular diver, on the same dive, is far less at risk of succumbing to DCI than a 'holiday diver', who probably hasn't dived since his/her last foreign holiday and is therefore unlikely to be 'dive-fit'. Also, being unaccustomed to using the equipment and whose buoyancy control skills are bound to be 'rusty', and is not 'dive-fit', or obese, is more likely to panic and strike out for the surface and suffer a pneumothorax. This is why it is so essential for a divemaster/diveleader, or instructor, to swim at the pace of the slowest diver - and many don't.



Is helicopter transfer available to non military personnel, at as near to sea level as possible, to the Lefkosa chamber? N.B. - No criticism is intended to any dive club, or organisation, in this posting.

smithy


Joined: 17/07/2008
Posts: 5301

Message Posted:
29/11/2009 15:44

What a lovely gesture from Yorgozlu please take him up on his offer it will save you a lot of wasted time

Good luck and hope you get this sorted out soon

david123


Joined: 07/07/2008
Posts: 393

Message Posted:
29/11/2009 19:53

Hi Tenakoutou,



I think by giving the diver the 100% oxygen to speed up the nitrogen removal from the body I don't think driving over to Lefkosa is going to make a big difference.

This could go on for ever regarding this because in the Islands off Thailand etc I know they use choppers to take injured divers to hospital so what happens there it never seems to matter because with DCI, DCS the most important step is to administer 100% oxygen you then cut the risk by a big percentage the oxygen forces the nitrogen out of the body helping recovery.



But they must take this oxygen at all times while traveling to the nearest decompression chamber.



But you are correct it should never get to this stage but like you say peoples buoyancy control is not always good.



I have been studying this for some time and it does get very complicated I have just done nitrox which can have the reversal effect of oxygen toxicity if the mixes are not tested correctly but anyway better stop boring you