I use an oxygen concentrator at night when I sleep. If it’s turned off I don’t die, but I wake up with a bad headache. Every couple months on average, my cat, Beast, jumps on it to get on to the nearby microwave oven, to jump from there to the top of the white counter, near the ceiling, the highest point in the house.
The cat almost always presses the off button when he does this. I don’t notice until I wake up with a headache.
Ironically, the Philips Respironics EverFlo oxygen concentrator sounds an alarm when you turn it ON, but not when you turn it OFF. That’s the opposite of what makes sense, and there is no user-available way to change this.
My wife made this CatMaster 3000 for me. It’s an update on the CatMaster 300, a similar but larger device we made to protect my mixing board from cats pushing buttons when they walk on it.
To make a CatMaster 3000, get UCreate Foam Board, and cut it into a piece 7×10 inches, and fold it at 5 inches. Put duct tape on the edges, and duct tape (I use this) it onto the oxygen concentrator over the switch to protect against accidental pressing by cat feet.
This would probably work with most oxygen concentrators, and could be modified to work with a CPAP machine. (I keep mine near the floor to prevent water backflow into the mask)
Here’s Beast, the big doofus that turns it off:
