Management of Respiratory Issues

My son Chris has had multiple issues with Pneumonia including multiple hospitalizations and ventilator support. I found this nice article on Respiratory support that is pretty technical. The part on General measures is below and you can link here to the actual article..Respiratory Consequences or Neuromuscular Disease. We have done the following with Chris

1. Use THE VEST percussion product by Hillrom to help mobilize secretions
2. Keep him Mobil and walking
3. Very aggressive use of antibiotics whenever temperature spikes
4. Cur food in small pieces to avoid any aspiration risk.

Always check with Doctor before implementing any changes!!

An impaired ability to cough and clear airway secretions
places patients with neuromuscular disease at particularly
high risk for the development of pulmonary infections.
In many cases, there is also an increased propensity to aspirate
food or pharyngeal secretions, due to weakness or a lack
of coordination of the upper airway muscles. Moreover, it
appears that even relatively mild upper respiratory tract
infections can lead to major additional reductions in
respiratory muscle strength.79 Therefore, any respiratory
tract infection in the patient with severe neuromuscular
disease has the potential to trigger an episode of full-blown
respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilatory assistance.
For this reason, it is imperative that aggressive
measures be taken to both prevent and treat respiratory
infections in such patients. This includes the appropriate
use of vaccinations against influenza and pneumoccocal
pneumonia, aggressive antibiotic treatment of suspected
bacterial infections of the respiratory tract, and chest physiotherapy
for removal of airway secretions. In addition,
either manual or mechanically assisted expulsive maneuvers
can be successful in increasing cough efficiency.80

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