Jenny McClelland’s 13-year-old son, James, was born with a rare genetic condition that makes him unable to breathe when he’s asleep. To stay alive, he relies on a ventilator with an attached humidifier, which makes the air less painful to breathe, a pulse oximeter to track his oxygen saturation and a suction machine to remove secretions that collect in his airway. Every device requires electricity.
When the power goes out in their Clovis, Calif., home, as it does at least a couple of times a year — sometimes for days at a time — the clock starts ticking. “For years, we relied on the battery in his ventilator, which lasts about four hours,” McClelland says.
“We learned how to jerry-rig the circuit to bypass the humidifier, so it would use less battery and buy us a little more time to figure out what to do next.” As power outages caused by grid failures or extreme weather become more common — Hurricane Beryl leaving millions without electricity in Texas is the most recent example — people who rely on home medical devices face a growing risk. Some 4.
5 million Medicare recipients and likely millions more of those with private insurance use such electricity-dependent equipment, including electric wheelchairs, hospital beds, ventilators and oxygen concentrators. These can be game changers for people with a variety of conditions, allowing them to stay in their homes and function independently but leave them reliant on stable electricity. And climate change is fue.
