3. Oxygen Tent
The sick child in the photo looks like he’s an Ebola patient being kept isolated from his caretakers at the hospital. In reality, he’s merely sitting in an oxygen tent. Oxygen tents are used to provide an oxygen-rich environment for patients who are having difficulty breathing, whether from a chronic disease like asthma or an acute illness like whooping cough, also known as pertussis. Oxygen tents are used in hospitals and can also be used in an outpatient or home setting when needed.
While they are less common today than they once were, oxygen tents are still used in situations where an oxygen mask or respirator may be difficult to wear or too uncomfortable for the patient. The oxygen tent allows the patient to be relatively unencumbered, as evidenced by the surprisingly happy looking child in the photo, but they do need to be kept sealed to keep the oxygen saturation high enough to be therapeutic. As with all oxygen treatments, one needs to be careful about sparks and open flames due to the combustible nature of oxygen.