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THE PA2—CHANGING LIVES FOR THE BETTER
16th February 2001 — Imagine having to carry
the weight of up to 15 bags of sugar everytime you stepped
outside your front door. Hard enough for a fit and healthy
adult but almost impossible if you're frail, suffer from
shortness of breath and can walk no more than 100 yards.
That was the reality for Martyn Neale, his wife Yvette
and his children. Martyn (38) suffers from chronic lung
disease. He has never smoked. It was caused by an undiagnosed
hole between his windpipe and his gullet (tracheo-eosophageal
fistula) during childhood, which resulted in food going
into his lungs, not his stomach. Over 15 years of acid damage
and countless infections later, Martyn now needs medical
oxygen virtually every minute of his life.
When he's at home, he uses a concentrator, but when walks
from his front door to his car, goes to his work, shops,
visits the park, he needs to have his oxygen with him in
a cylinder. It's a part of his life.
"For years when I've needed to go out, we've just
had to make the best of it, which meant having to carry
big heavy cylinders weighing 10-15 lbs a time," explains
Martyn, who works as an inventory controller in a stationery
warehouse.
"They're too heavy for me, which meant that my wife,
Yvette, had to do the carrying, so she'd have to accompany
me to work just so that I could get my cylinder from the
car into my office. Even in my wheelchair on visits to the
park, we'd have to carry these big uncomfortable cylinders
with us. It really was far from ideal."
Martyn was one of the first patients in the UK to trial
the PA2, the lightest, most portable cylinder available
via the NHS. It weighs just over 3 kg when full and is carried
on a backpack.
"It's probably hard to appreciate for most people,
but just being able to go to work on my own because my cylinder
is light and portable enough to carry is something I just
couldn't do before. I wouldn't begin to put a value on how
much my quality of life has improved."
Yvette, his wife, agrees. "Martyn has regained a lot
of his independence. He's not tied to my availability like
he used to be with the heavier cylinders. He's able to do
his own thing now."
On top of the mobility, the user-friendly design is also
making a difference in Martyn's life.
"The integrated regulator is so mush easier to use,
rather than having to change regulators between cylinders
like we used to. But the overall appearance and the carry
bag design are also a great feature. It's just like wearing
a small rucksack that most people don't even notice. It
really is a breath of fresh air."
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