• Khalid Gaber, Shawg Najem, and Sobha Paly.
• Chest. 2014 Mar 1;145(3 Suppl):546A.

Session TitleRespiratory Support PostersSESSION TYPE: Poster PresentationsPRESENTED ON: Saturday, March 22, 2014 at 01:15 PM - 02:15 PMPURPOSE: A newly established home ventilation service (HVS) was suddenly interrupted due to breakout of liberation war in Libya. We describe the outcome of 3 patients disconnected from their hospital unit for 8 monthsMethodsHVS started in Benghazi in 2010, initially involving 3 patients living 5, 240 and 300 kilometres away from supervising centre. Prior to patient initial hospital discharge, minimum of 2 family members per patients were trained on the use of home ventilators by supervising team. Contingency plans were made which included open hospital admission self referral system. All ventilators used had battery life of 7 hours. Additional equipments including ambu-bag and suction machines were provided to all patients. Patients were advised to have spare electric generator at home. In February 2011 liberation war broke-out and hospital HVU transformed into casualty unit. Patient-unit contact, including phone calls was lostResultsAll patients managed well at home except one requiring 7 days local hospital admission for UTI. Despite tracheostomy tubes were not replaced for 8 months, no ventilator or respiratory tract related issues were reported. The main challenge to families was repeated electricity failure. One generator had to be replaced. All patients were a live one year after war end and restarting HVSCONCLUSIONS: Proper family training and electric generator provision were proven pivotal in keeping lives of patients on home ventilators during wartimeClinical ImplicationsIn societies where electricity supply could be an issue, electricity generator provision should be considered as part of HVS package.DisclosureThe following authors have nothing to disclose: Khalid Gaber, Sobha Paly, Shawg NajemNo Product/Research Disclosure Information.

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