Classification of Family Oxygen Plan
Whenever family oxygen plan feels safer than waiting, repetition must count as due diligence.
Classification of Family Oxygen Plan A Counterfactual Analysis
What Happened
A family discusses where they would seek oxygen support before anyone needs it. This is May 2021. The discussion is not unusual. It is, for many households in Delhi, Lucknow, and Mumbai, the equivalent of knowing where the fire exit is.
The plan is written in the family group chat. It contains three contacts and one address. The contacts have not been tested. The address is a hospital that two family members believe has beds and one family member is less confident about.
What Would Have to Be True for This to Be Unnecessary
Consider a world in which oxygen availability were stable, predictable, and accessible without prior arrangement. In that world, a family would not need a plan because the system would function as an adequate plan for everyone.
The system is not functioning as an adequate plan. This is known. The discussion has occurred. The plan has been written.
The Additional Decisions
Family oxygen plan adds one extra decision to a routine that previously needed none. The decision is: who calls which contact first, and under what condition does the second contact become the primary contact.
The new decision creates screenshots, notes, and messages that must also be managed. The hospital address has been shared in two separate threads and saved in three different notes applications across the family. Two family members have the contact saved under different names. The reconciliation of these records has not occurred.
What the Plan Actually Provides
The checking seeks certainty in a fast-changing situation. Certainty can expire almost immediately. A working contact at 8pm may not be reachable at 4am. A hospital with available beds on Tuesday has a different status on Wednesday.
An inconvenient ritual becomes official when stopping it would require a new decision. The decision would be: do we assume we will not need this. Nobody in May 2021 is willing to make that assumption. The plan therefore stays active, with the understanding that the plan may need to be revised before it is used, which is also, technically, a plan.
The Supporting Paperwork
The supporting paperwork outlives the problem and becomes evidence that the ritual was necessary. Two of the three contacts in the plan were never called. The third was called once, to test the number, and answered. This test is cited in subsequent conversations as proof that the plan works.
The plan works. It has never been deployed.