Ailing patients breathe new vigour into industrial gas suppliers

Paris

IN A cluttered suburban apartment east of Paris, health technician Vincent Mallet adjusts a plastic tube delivering oxygen to an elderly man's diseased lungs. Sitting at the dining-room table, Mr Mallet tests the equipment while the patient and his wife recount the daily struggles of living with chronic illness.

In the past, the couple would have made frequent visits to a nearby hospital. With Mr Mallet now spending about an hour a week calibrating a bedside machine and writing a report for the man's doctor as part of his rounds in the town of Fontenay-sous-Bois, those visits have become rare.

Mr Mallet isn't a nurse or physician. He's an employee of Air Liquide SA, a French company better known for supplying gases in heavy cylinders and pipelines to industrial sites such as refineries and steel plants. The visit to the patient, paid for by…