Being concise is a virtue-pls forgive the length-
Three weeks ago, my best friend Barry, who taught me woodworking-was placed on a ventilator @ the VA.
The story:
After his Dad passed, Barry was cleaning out his Dad's house; his wife said that he was getting into a lot of boxes and such-that had not been moved in probably decades.
Lots of dust and debris was kicked up.
He coughed a little.
Two days later he was in the VA ER; that night was in respirator failure, in ICU, on a ventilator.
Over a period of two weeks every consultant imaginable came in.
The CDC is in fact across the street.
My wife and I went down there last Saturday and were shocked and horrified by a loving, generous, and kind 6'5" 350 lb man lying helpless and unresponsive for no apparent reason besides some dust exposure.
It was a very long ride home.
The next day, last Sunday, I was sitting where I am now.....and it occurred to me....Barry had a habit of spraying everything (dust, shavings, etc)out of the way, and into the air in the shop, instead of vacuuming it.
(You know, we all have air compressor hoses.....my preference is to vacuum it-HEPA style.)
Sitting here, the light bulb went off-I texted his wife to be sure and tell his MD about Barry's chronic exposure to organic material-wood dust.
She did.
Two days later, he started to improve; yesterday he was off the vent; today, he was sent out to the regular medical floor.
I did not make inquiries about therapeutic changes. Don't need to.
Barry had hypersensitivity pneumonitis that almost took him out. He currently has cognitive and memory issues-"to be expected".
Today, I also started wearing a double canister breathing mask (in addition to always running my Jet air cleaner) while running any power tools.
So, all this swirled around in my little over-educated Family Doctor head, and I was reluctant to put the effort into posting it.
Been posted many times before, right?
But, sitting here watching a talented woodworking YouTuber blow wood dust out of the way compressed air over and over in front of his audience.....I am compelled to post this.
Thanks for your attention to this important Public Service Announcement.