This is an unusual addition to my site, meant to spread the word, as The Guardian and medical articles are now recommending a pulse oximeter, as a potential lifesaver, as some patients don’t realize they are sick from Covid-19 and don’t come into the hospital until it is too late, if they don’t have symptoms of shortness of breath beforehand.

Here is one excerpt from the Guardian regarding the pulse oximeter.

“By very gently pinching the fleshy part of your fingertip and painlessly shining a light into it, the device detects your pulse rate and the percentage of your red blood cells carrying oxygen, or blood oxygenation, explains Alon Dagan, emergency medicine physician at Beth Israel Lahey Health.

It’s useful for those who have or are suspected to have coronavirus. Per his hospital’s protocol, Dagan says patients who either test positive or are presumed positive for coronavirus but aren’t sick enough to be admitted to the hospital are sent home with a pulse oximeter and instructions to use it three times a day.

For this population, the device can literally be a lifesaver. Usually, dangerously low blood oxygenation levels are associated with labored breathing to the point where it’s hard to speak in full sentences. With coronavirus, however, this is not necessarily the case. Covid-19 patients may be “breathing fairly comfortably but their oxygen saturations are much lower than we expected,” says Dagan.”

-The Guardian

The Pulse Oximeter was usually used in hospitals, but it is a finger monitor clip that is easy to use at home.

My aunt who has a medical degree bought a couple for her family (who don’t all live together as she has adult children) and recommends getting one as a preventative measure, as well as a thermometer. So far it is said that is not necessary if not yet experiencing Corona virus symptoms. However my aunt was always on the careful side, disinfecting, limiting group gatherings, and sewing face masks a few weeks before authorities recommended it as the new norm.

Please check out the above linked article by The Guardian as well as medical articles for more medically-credible information, as I am not a doctor nor a journalist, just spreading the word.

If you have symptoms of Covid-19 this does not replace a call or visit to your doctor. There is always a possibility of error.

CONTEC LED CMS50M Pulse Oximeter, SpO2 and PR value waveform Blood Oxygen, Carrying Case, Neck/Wrist Cord