Dr. Carol Gill and the Vivo 45 LS
A Person-Centered Ventilator Contributes to a Whole Life
Breas spoke with Dr. Carol Gill, Professor Emeritus, Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and previously a clinical psychologist and the director of rehabilitation psychology at a hospital in Los Angeles, California. She is busy as a wife and a grandmother who loves organic gardening and classic movies. Dr. Gill uses a Breas Vivo 45 LS ventilator under the direction of Dr. Lisa Wolfe with the home ventilation care provided by Health Care Solutions Group of Chicago.
As a child, Dr. Gill contracted polio and has lived with polio related disabilities for most of her life. A ventilator was not needed until she developed sleep apnea in middle age. After years of nocturnal ventilation, she realized the need for daytime ventilatory support to help with fatigue and airway clearance. She consulted with Dr. Wolfe and her home care provider and was recommended to try daytime use of Vivo 45 LS with the mouthpiece ventilation feature.
Dr. Gill’s own experiences with disability clearly has prepared her for her life’s work in disability studies that “focus on the complexity of disability.”