Home Medical Equipment
Buy and sell home medical equipment in Guatemala.
Looking after someone in a bedroom instead of a ward brings its own kit: a patient hoist to move them from bed to chair, an air mattress whose pump hums under the sheet, a table that rolls over the bed, a chair for the shower. Most of it is needed for months rather than years, so buying it pre-owned makes as much sense as buying new. Hospital beds are often rented for the first weeks, which is when a family starts deciding what to buy outright. Outside the capital, where storms can drop the supply, anything with a pump or a motor wants a voltage regulator.
Patient hoists, air mattresses and the kit around the bed:
the heavy pieces change the day most. A mobile hydraulic hoist lifts a person in a fabric sling with a pump handle and rolls on a base whose legs open to straddle a chair. An alternating-pressure air mattress is a row of cells and a small pump that fills them in turn; the thin overlay sits on an ordinary mattress, the deeper kind replaces it. Lighter pieces follow: an over-bed table that slides in for meals, rails that clip to the bed frame, and shower and commode chairs that make a small bathroom usable. Walkers and wheelchairs sit under mobility aids, and concentrators and nebulisers belong here too, with more on them under medical and mobility.
Sling hooks, mattress depth and the bed frame underneath:
most mistakes come from pieces that do not fit each other. A sling attaches by loops or by clips, and it has to match the hoist’s hooks and come in the right size, so a hoist sold without its sling is only half a hoist. Check that the legs pass under the bed and the base gets through the bedroom door. A deep air mattress lifts the sleeper higher against the rails than the old mattress did, so measure the rails against the new surface.
Air pumps, bed motors and the power supply:
anything that runs from the wall needs a plan for when the wall goes quiet. A mattress pump runs day and night, and in towns where storms knock the power out or make it dip, a voltage regulator between socket and machine is ordinary protection. Ask whether the pump sounds an alarm when the power fails. A bed or pump brought from the United States plugs straight in, since the supply runs at the same voltage; the catch is finding a replacement pump or sling for a model never sold in Guatemala.
A hydraulic hoist new against one second-hand:
the money is in the hoist. A new mobile hydraulic hoist runs from roughly Q6,000 to Q10,000, depending on its weight rating and whether a sling is included, while an air overlay with its pump costs under Q1,000 new. A used hoist should sell well under new, and the discount should follow the sling and the ram: a frayed or wrong-sized sling means buying another, and a ram that weeps oil means a reseal. A used overlay earns little: cells puncture, and few want a surface that spent months under someone else.
A hoist ram that creeps, an overlay that sags:
both faults show up quickly. Pump a hoist to full height with a heavy load hung from it, never a person, and watch whether the boom drifts down; look for oil on the ram, open and close the legs, check that the rear casters lock and read the sling’s stitching. Run an air overlay fully inflated, press on the cells to feel them change in turn and listen for a hiss at the hose connectors. On shower and commode chairs the aluminium corrodes at the joints, the height pins seize, and the bucket and lid often go missing.
A hoist that comes apart, a pump with its hoses:
say whether the mast lifts off the base and the legs fold, because that decides whether a buyer takes it home in a car boot or needs a pickup. Photograph the weight label, the sling’s size tag, the air pump running with both hoses on and the voltage plate on anything electric, and say how long it was used and that slings and covers were washed. Most of this kit is passed on when care at home ends, and a buyer driving in from Huehuetenango or up from Escuintla wants the sling, hoses, charger and remote handed over with the frame in one visit.