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Mother of children with cystic fibrosis explains how power outages present a potentially deadly threat to her kids

“The nature of CF is that anytime it can become life and death,” said Annie Bridges. Her kids need medical devices to help them breathe and eat.

SAN ANTONIO — As power outages continue for another night, a San Antonio mother shares how electricity is essential to help her kids eat and breathe. 

Annie Bridges shared that out of her three children, two of them have a condition that requires daily treatment. Her 12-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl have cystic fibrosis, a disease that affects the lungs, digestive system and other organs in the body.

She said that her family lost power at 7 p.m. Monday. When it finally turned back on noon Tuesday, electricity would turn on for 10 minutes and turn off for 10 minutes. Bridges shared how the family relies on electricity for their health equipment to work. 

“The nature of CF is that anytime it can become life and death,” said Bridges. “Both of them have to do daily breathing treatments for airway clearance and that involves using nebulizers with medication in them. There’s also a vest that shakes them to help clear their airways.”

Bridges says while she can manually perform the functions of the vest,  there is no replacement for the nebulizer. The machine takes liquid medication and transforms it into vapor. She said during the time they had power, they have been charging up the back-up battery.

Credit: Bridges family

Bridges says their housing options are limited because of the coronavirus. The two children are at higher risk of contracting the virus because of their medical condition.

“Is there more danger lying in them skipping some treatments because we don’t have power or is the danger exposing them by taking them to a hotel or Airbnb,” questioned Bridges. 

She said that their situation is not ideal but the family is counting their blessings because she shared that there are other people who are worse off.

“I would say there are other people across the city that are probably in much more dire situations. People on dialysis, things like that,” said Bridges. 

Bridges contacted CPS Energy on Twitter about her family’s situation and received a response. She shared with KENS 5 that the city emergency management team contacted her. They provided a free hotel room for Tuesday night. She said that since the family is without power again, they have chosen to take them up on that offer.

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