GE Ohmeda TruSat

[hcs_mom]

Does anyone else have one of these? What do you think about them?

Hannah came home 5+ years ago with a Nellcor. I loved that thing. Sure, we had issues from time to time, but it was a good reliable machine.

Well, it finally quit reading well. We own the machine, the DME is looking into what it will take to fix it, but we have been given this GE machine.

We are having a horrible time with it. Last night, it just turned off. It wasn't running off the battery, our power didn't go out, we didn't blow a fuse...that was the only thing in the room, on that outlet, that quit. Her sats never got above 95 on it. At one point, it showed her heart rate in the 30s. Seriously? I've tried the probes on her thumb, both big toes...same readings. I tried it on me, it showed me at 96. On the Nellcor, I was always 98+.

So, is there some special way to wrap this probe? (AND, the DME forgot to bring the manual with it, so there was no way for me to troubleshoot at 3am).

If the Nellcor can't be fixed, I'm hoping they don't think I'm keeping this junky thing.

Just looking for some input.
Thx.
Jennie

[haikumama]

We have the Ohmeda Trusat and I loathe it.

Actually, I'm not sure which I hate more, the monitor itself, or the probes. We wrap the probe around Ike's foot, with the red part just under his pinky toe. Then we sometimes tape it and put a sock over it just to get it to read.

I do not think it's accurate at all. We've been worried about Ike's sats dropping when he sleeps, so the pulmo sent over a fancy monitor to record a 12-hour trend. Well, with that machine, Ike never dipped below 95 all night, without any o2.

Was it just that one strange night that he didn't didn't desat? I doubt it.

We actually took the ohmeda to the hospital when Ike had his last bronch, and we hooked him up to it AND the hospital monitor. Ours would read 88, theirs 98. Sometimes both the same, but a lot of the time not.

Unfortunately, our DME doesn't have any other oximeters available. Or so they say.

Bleh.

I'm sorry yours sucks, too, but it makes me feel somewhat vindicated that I am possibly not as crazy as the DME people act like I am.

[Ainsley's Mom]

The little yellow one? That's what we have had all along and I love it. We use the sensitive skin probes and still wrap it around her foot and get a good reading all night. Now I will say that if she's moving forget it, but we never monitor her during the day so I've never tried all that hard. That being said when they delivered it to the hospital it didn't work but it was a bad cord even though it was brand new. Once we replaced the cord it worked perfect.

I also put it on me and got a reading of 96% but Ainsley always sats at 98-100% on it.

Hope you can get it working or get your old machine back.

[Jacob's Mom]

We had that same pulse-ox for several months and it was horrible! I think our DME company finally got tired of me calling every day, so they brought back the Nellcor. :rolleyes:

[scm]

We had one of those four years ago, and had many problems with the probes. They either just wouldn't pick up or we would get the message "error code" after a short time. It was never clear if it was the probe or the machine, but it was a constant battle with the DME and I beleive we had the machine replaced no less that 10 times in the first year or two. About two or more years ago they said it was recalled and it was replaced with the Nonin that we have been happy with.
So, my opinion is get a different one!;)

[hcs_mom]

The DME rep was out today, condescending person that he is...he gave us a new connector cable that seems to have helped *some*, but insists that these are reliable machines. And if we question it, the "gold standard" is to check me or someone else in the house. Really? And that's your test for reliability? Genius. Yeah...we do that. And it reads me lower too.

So, I will give it the weekend and then I'm calling her pulm to write a script for a Nellcor. So they can either take their cheap little machine they purchased cheap in bulk and get me a Nellcor OR I will find another DME to supply the pulse ox. It's quite simple. And a very reliable solution.

Thanks for the responses.
Jennie

[twintotwin]

We used the Nellcor for years and loved it. However, our DME has stopped getting them and switched us to Massimo. We've had it for over a year with hardly a problem. No complaints other than it's frustrating when I have to press the "on" button like 5 times before it actually turns on for whatever reason. Probes are pretty much the same as Nellcor but are not interchangable with the machines unfortunately...so hoarding Nellcor probes from hospital visits doesn't help anymore!

[Ainsley's Mom]

The DME rep was out today, condescending person that he is...he gave us a new connector cable that seems to have helped *some*, but insists that these are reliable machines. And if we question it, the "gold standard" is to check me or someone else in the house. Really? And that's your test for reliability? Genius. Yeah...we do that. And it reads me lower too.

So, I will give it the weekend and then I'm calling her pulm to write a script for a Nellcor. So they can either take their cheap little machine they purchased cheap in bulk and get me a Nellcor OR I will find another DME to supply the pulse ox. It's quite simple. And a very reliable solution.

Thanks for the responses.
Jennie

Like I said, we use this on Ainsley and she always sats in the 98-100% range so I don't really think they read low. I checked mine again the other day after I saw your post and it read me at 98%. But you have to be happy and if you don't like it you don't like it.

[kirafaesmom]

When we moved and therefore changed DME's, we got a Massimo; LOVE IT! And...our hospital uses the same probes! We use the re-usable probes and haven't had any problems whatsoever. I have yet to talk to anyone who doesn't like the Massimo's. Bottom line is if it's not working for you, then you need to get one that does.