If you have oxygen patients that want to travel, but might have some initial trepidation over traveling, new traveling services are cropping up that cater to their specific needs and concerns. Case in point: The SeaPuffers.
Five years ago, respiratory therapists from The Pulmonary Paper, a not for profit organization that supports patients with chronic lung disease, began escorting oxygen travelers on cruises and trips with the SeaPuffers (seapuffers.com).
SeaPuffers helps oxygen travelers overcome any fears they have about traveling with a POC or other respiratory device, which to some patients can seem daunting at first.
The support provided by the service is extensive: Once a traveler books space with a cruise, Respiratory Therapists from SeaPuffers call them to discuss their oxygen and equipment needs. SeaPuffers then ensure the traveler has all he or she needs at the point of departure. If the traveler is flying to the port SeaPuffers arranges the flight, including any oxygen needs for the flight. When the traveler arrives, SeaPuffers meets them at their gate and transfer them to the hotel or ship. Often SeaPuffers travelers arrive a day early and stay overnight in the port city to be relaxed for their first day aboard the ship. SeaPuffers then transfers everything to the ship, and at the end of the cruise to the airport.
And travelers needn’t go it alone. SeaPuffers often travel with family and friends, who enjoy the same group rate as the oxygen travelers. Cabin arrangements can be made with multiple people in the same cabin, or adjoining cabins with connecting doors.
Scooter-, wheelchair-accessible cabins are available, as are showers without a step and shower chairs.
The SeaPuffers arrange four to five trips a year and are quite the globetrotters. “We have been from Hawaii to Russia and from Alaska to The Mediterranean,” says Celeste Belyea RRT, RN, AE-C and the editor of The Pulmonary Paper.
