"Oxygen Canister: 'Life Jacket and Lead Boots'"

This man with lung disease drives his pickup (utility vehicle) laden

with oxygen canisters, carrying at least one and usually many with

him wherever he goes, as well as an oxygen concentrator at home.

They are his 'life jacket' from inability to extract enough oxygen from

the air due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and thus keep

him alive, but they also anchor him and hinder his movements by

their heaviness. He is depicted leaning on his pickup truck hood

(bonnet). Your ratings, critiques and observations are invited and

most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically or wish to make a

remark, please submit a helpful and constructive comment, please

share your superior knowledge to help improve my photography.

Thanks! Enjoy! john

This man's disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is otherwise known by its abbreviation by most people in the USA as COPD, and often comes from a lifetime of smoking or breathing other harmful things. 

It is progressive, basically incurable, and robs the individual of the energy to do basic things by starving the individual of oxygen, which must be supplied supplementally, often through tubes attached to the nose, from canisters, such as the one in front of this man, shown as he waits for an auto teller machine inside an enclosure to become available at a bank (notice card in this hand).

john

John (Crosley)

Picture and write-up a model for documentary.

Does he get the same benefits/support that other handicapped/challenged folks get?

Very good idea well crafted too, fine portrait, great expression of the man with an oxygen bottle..The only think I would change was a lens distortion and maybe some more sharpness on his hands.  

Sad story!

Why sad?  Why not marvelously joyous that modern medical technology has the capacity to extend the life (true - under somewhat difficult conditions) for a man otherwise doomed to a much shorter lifespan? I wonder if the man also gets psychological counseling to help him adjust to his condition.  The look on his face does not suggest happiness.

This is a documentary photograph presented well, with enough written words to give it meaning.  Congratulations on a job well done!

Regards,

Jerry Matchett

I cannot be sure because we didn't speak of it, but assuming this fellow worked enough during his predisability working life, he would be eligible for Social Security Title II (Disability Insurance Benefits) which would pay him monthly then after two years MediCare benefits, assuming he was under the age of about 65, then Medicare for sure at 65 (or so, they've been changing the eligibility ages, and I didn't ask his age.

However, Social Security monthly benefits often are absurdly low and in many cases not enough for basic living expenses, but the Medicare benefits can be extremely valuable.

For individuals in 'need' without sufficient assets (his truck didn't look worth much as an 'asset'), he might be eligible for supplemental 'Food Stamps' (SNAP program for supplemental food assistance and Medicaid additional medical support above and beyond Medicare which I think he was eligible for and, and to stand in the place of Medicare if not.

His wife's (if he had one) assets and income would be counted in determining his need, but if she's a 'girlfriend' that wouldn't happen, so if she were working, it might work to the benefit detriment and actually cost them if the oxygen cost were great plus breathing medicines.

(I know the basics of benefits, but can't state more, not having done more than chatted with him).

Good question.

Thanks for asking.

john

John (Crosley)

Sometimes I like lens distortion, when, like here, it causes converging lines, but it does look 'unnatural', and I welcome your workup, which teaches me a lesson - same with sharpening the hands.

I am indebted to you.

Thank and also for the compliments.

john

John (Crosley)

Sad, yes, but sadder if it happened in Ukraine.

In Ukraine he would be dead, I think or confined to bed.

In the USA, he's mobile and has some sort of life -- he can travel so long as he has his oxygen, and with three large bottles in his truck (he's leaning on the hood - bonnet-- of the truck), he could go a long way, plus they sell oxygen in many places; one presumes he has 'benefits' that allow him to get oxygen many places, PLUS he has an oxygen concentrator at home.

An oxygen concentrator allows extraction of oxygen from the air, can be plugged in anywhere (where electricity supplies are compatible).

So, his health is sad, but the efforts to keep him alive are world class.

It's like my caption says -- life preserver and lead boots.

Thanks for the comment, Svetlana.

john 

John (Crosley)

I agree with you about miracles, (see comment to Svetlana, next above).

This photo WAS on initial review one of PN's lowest rated new photos, but it's climbed thanks to more intelligent/discerning viewers/raters.

It was taken as a chance encounter but in true documentary style because it interested me, and frankly the setup was really a very interesting situation, with this guy perched with his canister on top his pickup hood.

john

John (Crosley)

Good that you could get this man to offer you the opportunity to take this peek into a real life drama.I have a friend with the same condition,in some ways even looks a bit like this man who puts in a hard day's work just breathing.Very telling look you have seized of the courageous one leaning on his pickup surely to get his breath back after the short effort of getting out of his vehicle before heading for the store where he is parked close to the door.Credit card in hand,is he going in to get a gift for the loved one whose heart is tattooed on his arm or is he going for a refill on his life bottle?In any case,excellent capture and equally excellent image!

Meilleures salutations-Laurent 

Here's the 'back story':

I parked next to this guy's truck.

He was waiting for his turn to open the door to the ATM machine enclosure.

He was leaning on the hood of his truck, oxygen bottle just like this, in this pose.

I saw him, stepped out of my car, simultaneously pointed my finger at him and in a stern, authoritarian, but friendly voice, smile on my face, said to him rather loudly so he wouldn't have to change his posture to hear me, said:  Don't move a muscle, stay just like that. I'm a photographer and that's the perfect post I'd like to take your portrait in.  OK?

He nodded.

He didn't move a muscle, and I took this photograph plus several move with his patient cooperation.

He was very friendly, a nice guy, and reviewed all my photos as best they could be reviewed in sunlight (not well, it was pretty bright).

This was a photo that was just waiting to be taken by me -- I just couldn't pass it up, and he helped greatly.  He's a fine guy who almost assuredly one time smoked lots, and has paid a terrible price.

Me? 

I've never had ONE cigarette in all my life; my parents both smoked like chimneys, I woke up every morning in my youth with a store throat and stuffed sinuses (because of their smoking) and was amazed that was NOT how people lived when I went away to Columbia for university where I lived 'no smoking' (until my 'no smoking' roommate got a pipe collection to which he paid more attention than his studies - he was a 'legacy' and a dilettante for whom I had little truck -- my first year).

I once smoked some marijuana stuffed inside a cigarette, but it also turned out I'm extremely allergic to marijuana -- I got so sick from stuffed up sinuses from that episode which coincided exactly with my joining Associated Press I missed almost two weeks of work just after starting to work, so that right after I started work, I was absent for nearly two weeks with all spoken words sounding like they came from inside a barrel.

Thank God for such allergies and intolerances. 

If my parents were any indication, cigarettes would have hooked me if I could have tolerated them at all -- same for marijuana (which I found quite comfortable, but I liked hearing and smelling much better than the brief high I got from MJ, so I never partook since).

Many ancestral relatives, almost all,  died from smoking and smoking-related diseases; I'll never forgive the tobacco companies and their executives for foisting in a concerted campaign their death sticks on my many now dead relatives hastening their deaths.

My hat's off to this guy -- if he smoked, it's almost certainly not all his fault.  He was the target of a conspiracy to take his money, his health be damned (and I don't use the term 'conspiracy' loosely as I am not a conspiracy nut).

Laurent, thanks for an observant and helpful critique (once again).

john

John (Crosley) 

Thanks Drew,

Your approval for this means a lot.

It got somewhat of an underwhelming response on the critique forum, somewhat to my surprise, but I guess having been more close to things medical and life and death matters, I suppose you have a greater appreciation for such things that both help and are 'anchors' -- medicine's ambiguous 'helpers' we can't live without but are 'drags' on life.

Thanks for taking the time to let me know your opinion; I always look forward to your take on things.

john

John (Crosley)