ResMed Spain, UK, and Hope2Sleep to the rescue in Spain

Hi,

I am a CPAP user ( I have severe OSA, up to 100 a nite) and cannot sleep without my machine at all.

I recently had a bit of an emergencey in Spain, and thought I would have to fly home, but luckily, in just over 36 hours I was rescued. I thought i'd post my story here a) to provide some helpful contacts for anyone who has Resmed equipment and needs help in Spain and b) to warn people of the perils of travelling unprepared!.

So, I flew to Spain (Torremolinos) on a late flight, which is unusual for me, I like to arrive midday usually. Anyway, plan was to unpack just jimjams and sleep machine and head straight to bed on arrival.

As I knew i'd get hot n bothered, I'd elected to pack new headgear and mask cushion for the trip.

01.30hrs I unpack my machine and mask, put the cushion in, and go to attach the new headgear (which, for the Mirage Quattro, did not come with clips). Yes, you guessed it,  when I  packed my new headgear I forgot I needed to take the clips off the old one !

There are no hooks on the Mirage, so I was stuck. I found an email address for ResMed Madrid, I had the email for ResMed UK, and for Kath at Hope2Sleep, so I fired up the IPad and emailed them all hoping one of them could suggest something for the next day. I then tied the mask on with a luggage strap and sat in a chair getting what rest I could ( which wasn't much!)

Headed off to Fueringirola Market next morning so see if I could find any bum bags or cheap luggage that I could cut the clips off to try and effect an emergencey repair, then checked my emails mid morning. ResMed UK gave me the contact details for ResMed Madrid and Kath had found them too and emailed me them also, with ResMed Barcelona.

Hadn't heard from either ResMed Spain offices by lunchtime so rang the Madrid office - Answermachine. Rang the Barcelona office that Kath had given me the details for, and a realy helpful guy there said he had got the details of my mask from the UK office and emailed me the parts list and was waiting for a reply: it had gone to my junk mail box!.

I gave him the number for the parts and he said they were in stock. He would put them on a 24hr courier service to my hotel and they would be with me first thing in the morning - pay the driver when he got there.

I couldnt find clips, but used a couple of headbands from the market that kept my mask more or less in place as long as I slept sitting up in a chair that night.

Sure enough, next morning, the courier arrived ( 5.50 euros for the clips, 18 eurors for the courier, but way better and £120 flight home and an abandoned holiday!)

Kath and Resmed kept a check on my progress up to when I got my clips.

So, will this dozy mare check her equipment before she flys next time  - yes, about a thouand times !

But, it could have been that something got damaged in transit, or broke when I was there, so my tips for myself, and others:

There are plenty of light parts that we can take as spares for emergencies : clips, headgear, spare mask cushion, slimline hose, and some superglue in case a major mask part snaps, pack them!

We can take the component guide for our mask ( either as a soft copy if you have a smartsphone or IPad, or a printed copy), so that if we need assistance we know the part number, regardless of language barriers, and we can take the number/email of our nearest supplier in case we get  an emergency.

For anyone with a Mirage Quattro, the component guide is attached.

If you use Resmed equipment and are going to Spain, the email for helpful guy at the Barcelona office, who will deliver to most parts of Spain, within 24 hours, is irubio@terapiacpap.com

The UK office who helped me is at info@realsleep.co.uk

And last, but definately not least,as she is brilliant, - take Kath's email with you  - if she can't help, I bet she can find someone who can

Home now, and looking forward to sleeping in my own (big and comfy!) bed.

Take care all, hope this helps someone.

Maria x