[BJordan13]

My son just spent 5 days in the hospital with aspirational pneumonia. He is cp, non-mobile, spastic quadriplegic, etc..... had flu like symptoms coming out of both ends like no tomorrow. Started having trouble breathing, so we took him in for O2 and fluids for the dehydration. As it turns out, what was coming out the mouth was not fully getting out and it went back into his lungs. At ER his pulse ox was about 70. (for him 94 about normal) Lower right lung was full of fluid and lower left had some fluid not near the right.

First important part of this story: The PICU Dr.s freak out when they have a CP kid. They started talking about intubating him and putting him on a respirator. Oh yeah, a chance he will not come off it. Now if he stopped breathing, we would have allowed it, but he was not even close. What they did do is put him on a CPAP machine and forced O2 into his lungs to open them up. This worked. Good call Doc. Not the pretttiest site seeing your 6 yr old with a fighter pilot mask on being force fed oxygen and all you do is watch him and the numbers on the monitor, wondering is it as bad as the Dr says. Point is, ask questions and get all the information before letting the Dr. do some crazy treatment. They tend to error on the conservative side when they do not know your kid. Not the worse thing to do, but may not be the best.

Second part: I am looking for a good portable home aspirator (suction machine) there are multiple manufacturers and kinds. I would like one that does the job, but do not want to get more than I need or less than I need. Any recommendations?

Thank you.