Hours: 24/7
Phone: (830) 393-1300
The Respiratory Care Department is staffed 24/7 by licensed Respiratory Care Practitioners. Our Respiratory Therapists are experts in managing life support devices, airway management, mechanical ventilation, and other aspects of critical care medicine. This department specializes in treating respiratory illnesses including chronic lung problems such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and COPD, as well as acute breathing problems associated with serious or life-threatening conditions such as heart attack, or stroke. We also offer a broad spectrum of diagnostics such as arterial blood gas analysis, venous blood gas analysis, carboxyhemoglobin analysis, EKG’s, and complete pulmonary function testing.
Facts about Respiratory Therapy:
The number of Americans who die from chronic respiratory diseases has skyrocketed over the past 35 years, led in large part by deaths from COPD. More than 1.2 million Americans die annually from a range of chronic respiratory illnesses. While the risk was pegged at 41 deaths for every 100,000 people back in 1980, it rose to nearly 53 out of every 100,000 by 2017
Eighty-five percent of the deaths — 3.9 million people — were from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which moved up in that period of time to become the third leading cause of death, ahead of stroke, in the United States.
Other chronic respiratory illnesses that saw dramatic increases included: particle-inhalation diseases, such as pneumoconiosis and interstitial lung disease; asthma; and pulmonary sarcoidosis (a disease of inflammation and abnormal mass growth).
The respiratory disease statistics reflect a number of factors, including historical and current smoking patterns, poverty, dietary factors, occupational exposures and other potential factors.
The good news is that, over the last 30 years or so, there have been great advances in understanding, preventing and treating chronic respiratory diseases. Respiratory illnesses still face challenges that remain, and will need to be addressed looking to the future.