Just call me a wander-lusting, well-seasoned, quadriplegic “responaut!” I’ve traveled thousands of miles since getting polio in 1952 and visited a multitude of European, North American, and Caribbean countries as a tourist and invitational speaker. I’ve traveled by plane, bus, boat, car, train, subway, and gondola – wheelchair and vent in tow. Once in a moment of madness, I’ve even tried a motorbike! Over the years I’ve learned much about traveling with a vent and have personally participated in an amazing technological evolution that’s made vent dependent travel unbelievably possible, the ultimate solution being today‘s lap-top vent, the Pulmonetic Systems LTV®950, and its easy-to-transport long life batteries.

My maiden voyage as a wander-lusting responaut began in 1956 when a bigger-than-a-coffin iron lung accompanied me back to Canada aboard the ocean liner, “The Empress of Scotland.” Only five years later, I was camping with yards and yards of electrical cable strung through the forest to an electrical outlet in a distant campsite office. I had “down-sized” to a cuirass ventilator by then, powered by a Technicon Huxley motor. Still big and bulky, but travel was definitely becoming easier.

University graduation and secure employment several years later only broadened my travel ambitions. I ventured to new countries and took on new challenges, such as ensuring my ventilator would work in countries with different electricity. Misadventures sometimes quickly enhanced the process! In Barbados, for example, I discovered that “cycle” matters just as much as “voltage.” If it hadn’t been for my father’s island dwelling, rum loving friend, who generously paused his illicit liquor making business so I could run my ventilator off his generator, my dream vacation would have been aborted.

Generators and 12 volt batteries have saved the day on more than one occasion. A peaceful narrow boating vacation on Britain‘s 1,700 miles of canals (the routes of horse drawn commerce long before railways and roads) happened because of a gasoline fuelled generator on the back deck of the boat. Sheltered from the rain by bright red umbrellas, electrical cable strung alongside the boat and into the window where I slept on a narrow bunk with my cuirass and a borrowed UK Monaghan 170C, the generator delivered the electrical power needed. What a sight it was to wake up in the morning to herds of curious cows standing silently on the bank of the farmer’s fields where we had moored, wondering what on earth this strange noisy intrusion could be!

Twelve years ago my ventilator and I sailed for a week on a century old three masted Dutch schooner. Starting in Amsterdam, we visited ancient towns on the IJsselmeer (Holland’s inland sea) then went through the great barrier dam into the North Sea to “fall dry” (beach when the tide goes out) in the middle of nowhere and explore the windswept bottom of the ocean floor! An experience straight out of Star Trek! Prior correspondence with the schooner company had left me confident that my electrical needs could be met, but I did not know that electricity was only available during the day because it had to be regenerated every night. Thank goodness for the quick thinking Dutch crew who spliced a cable into the generator, threaded it through the ship’s passageways and connected it to the positive pressure ventilator that I was now using with a mask interface.

Positive pressure ventilation was a significant evolutionary milestone in terms of travel. The reduced size and weight of positive pressure ventilators meant significantly less luggage and bulk to carry. The internal battery and alternative operability from an external 12 volt power source meant I could plug it into the cigarette lighter of a car and safely run it off a 12 volt battery for extended periods of time. These features were a breakthrough for now I could safely spend some time with my cousin who lived in Majorca, one of Spain's ancient Balearic islands, where electricity was notoriously inconsistent and unreliable.

Smaller vents also heralded a critical advance in security and peace of mind. Now I could carry my ventilator in the cabin with me, never letting it out of sight and even using it during flight, if only for one hour - the duration of the internal battery. The size and bulk of previous ventilators meant they had to go in the cargo hold of the plane, giving rise to some scary misadventures, such as the time my equipment was sent to Zurich, Switzerland instead of arriving with me in London, England and the time when the suitcase carrying my Monaghan 170C hosing was stolen at the Vancouver airpont!

With issues of size, bulk, power, and security being resolved, it now seemed that any travel challenge could be conquered. However, a recent invitation from the Japanese Ventilator User’s Network to speak about traveling at their International Conferences in Sapporo, Tokyo, and Osaka, seemed insurmountable. How could I manage 25 hours of exhausting international travel through four different airports? How could I breathe without support for 12 continuous hours during the long trans-Pacific flight? It was not possible to plug my vent into the airplane‘s electrical supply. I would have to use a 12 volt battery, but where, in the tight confined space of economy class seats, could I possibly put the battery, as well as an oxygen cylinder? How could my traveling companion possibly tote my ventilator plus a 12 volt battery, plus two battery chargers (one for my vent battery and one for my wheelchair battery) as well as two week's worth of luggage through four different airports and all the security checks involved? How could I cope with adequate intermittent daytime vent support during the long days away from our hotels when I would be lecturing at the conference centers or traveling from place to place? Even though Fuji Respironics generously provided me with back-up ventilators at every hotel, the challenge of two weeks in Japan seemed insurmountable!

Until Pulmonetic Systems, Inc. heard about the invitation, that is, and offered to loan me their LTV®950, complete with back-pack carrying bag and four easy-to-carry long life batteries. After sleeping with the LTV®950 for only a few hours I knew I was on my way. It was comfortable, small, and so lightweight, I carried it easily on the back of my wheelchair, thus taking a load off my companion who already had more than enough to carry.

My wheelchair also carried the LTV®'s four paperback book size batteries which lasted a good 12 hours during the longest part of the flight and provided a ready source of power during the hot, busy days in Japan. The LTV®950 sat easily by my feet in the confined airline space of the trans-Pacific flight, so I could access both its volume mode (when awake) and pressure mode (when sleeping with a mask). Being able to carry it everywhere on the back of my chair meant instant access to air no matter what I was doing - lecturing, riding the famous Bullet Train, eating Sushi, or visiting Kyoto's famous temples.

In spite of the incredible distances from home, my two week journey to Japan was one of my best trips ever. The only challenge to this international wander-lusting responaut, the biggest one of all actually, was a difficult readjustment back to my previous, less comfortable, and more limiting ventilator. But dreams can't be suppressed forever, can they? Where will today's ventilator evolution take me next? To outer space? The moon? Anything at all is possible if you just put your mind to it!