USVI-On-Line

Is there any place on St. John that provides medical oxygen? My husband was recently put on oxygen and there's no way we can cart down the machine that fills his containers. Wondering if he might be able to pick some up somewhere with a prescription.

I have not had personal experience with your situation, but I have heard many good things about the clinic on St John. If no one can answer your question directly or from experience you might try contacting the clinic.

http://www.rlshospital.org/about_us/thr ... enter.aspx

Wishing you and your husband a restful and restoring island vacation.

You should also check in with the Chelsea Drugstore, which has a full service pharmacy. It is directly above Starfish Market, and their phone number is (340) 776-4888.

All the best,

Kevin

Thanks! We'll call both these places ahead of time.

Hi --
Does he have a portable oxygen concentrator? As far as I know, none of the US airlines allow you to travel with filled tanks anymore. (And even when they did, they had to supply the oxygen.)

If he doesn't have one, you can rent one from a supplier.

My daughter traveled to STJ at a time when she needed oxygen both to fly and while sleeping, but she did have her own concentrator.

Good luck.

I just found that out yesterday. We are going to look into seeing if we can rent a portable oxygen concentrator for the week that we are down there. We have an oxygen concentrator in the house but it is definitely not portable. He's not on it 24/7 but given the humidity in St. John, he'll definitely need it at some point.

Just saw an ad on TV for Inogen portable oxygen concentrator and thought of this post. The brand was Inogen.

Thanks, that's the one the doctor is prescribing.

I'm glad I looked at this early enough. Apparently each airline has its own form you have to fill out so that you're allowed to bring the POC on the plane. Doctor has to sign it and whether you need it during the whole flight or periodically. They also have a requirement for batteries depending on flight time.

Husband has COPD and doesn't need it 100% of the time yet. Went ahead and ordered a wheelchair for him since he gets out of breath walking through the terminal to the gate and Dulles has a much longer walk than BWI where we usually fly out from.

Good thing you asked!
The Inogen is a good brand--we used to have one of those and Caitlin traveled with it a lot, when her oxygen needs were low. Because he will (everyone does) de-sat on the plane, he might need it for flying, but his doctor can determine that.

Enjoy your trip.