Chris C.
Saved my wife's life
Several years ago, when I was having several asthma attacks every year, I bought a 9 litre canister of Boost Oxygen. Since being diagnosed with rare eosinophilic asthma, I have been self-injecting every eight weeks with the monoclonal antibody benralizumab (Fasenra) and have not had an asthma exacerbation since, so the Boost Oxygen has just remained, unused, conspicuous, on top of a bathroom cabinet. Since having a heart attack, angioplasty and an arterial stent nearly 22 years ago, my 81 year-old wife has been on beta blockers and other medication to keep her blood pressure normal and has kept active, canoeing, climbing, sailing and for a few years has been swimming a mile three days a week. A fortnight ago, she had some left side pain in her arm, chest, neck, shoulder and back and tried some Ibuprofen with only mild benefit. She continued life as normal, but used the painkillers to try to mitigate the situation. On Sunday 26th November, I started monitoring her blood pressure, which was peaking at 229/121. The pain got very bad that evening and I called NHS 111, and an ambulance arrived and took her to A&E, an hour away, with me following. They kept her in overnight and discharged her 14 hours later, declaring no heart damage and she was told to see a doctor about the pain. First thing Tuesday morning we did so and she was prescribed Amlodipine, Naproxen, Co-codamol (and a lazative) plus Omeprazole. Just before lunch on Wednesday, I found her unconscious, totally unreponsive and with a BP of 92/57 and blood oxygen SPO2 of 88%. I remembered the Boost Oxygen and after a few minutes and some 20 puffs, her SPO2 was 94% and she started to respond. The 999 call centre advised an hour and a half delay for an ambulance, but it arrived in three minutes. Over the next few days, she suffered renal failure, a very itchy rash, nausea, confusion, visual problems, reduced appetite, inflamed esophagus and difficulty swallowing, with continuing pain. It was concluded that the recent medication had taken her BP far too low, so this was discontinued and she has also been taken off Lisinopril for a week because of the AKI (Acute Kidney Injury). On Monday 4th December, we finally got a diagnosis of a trapped nerve in her neck, possibly caused by swimming crawl stroke for over three hours a week, and she has an appointment with a trusted chiropractor and osteopath to try to release the trapped nerve. The pain had elevated the blood pressure which remains high at 196/112 in between periods when the co-codamol is effective for about three and a half hours every six hours, when the pain eases and BP is a more normal 128/76. Without having the Boost Oxygen to hand, I think she would have suffered brain damage or not survived. We now have two more canisters of Boost Oxygen, which look identical but are actually 10 litres. We have even taken one with us on the various visits back to doctor and hospital for on-going reviews and tests. Since coming off the newly-prescribed medication (which she must never have again) her blood oxygen has remained around 96% saturation, so no further Boost Oxygen has been required.
Response from Boost OxygenDec 8, 2023
Thank you for sharing this with us Chris. We're happy to hear that the product was able to help your wife during a difficult time. We're glad that she's doing better. We appreciate the kind words. From, The Boost Team