There was a STAT call at the Misericordia Hospital (Edmonton, AB Canada) from an Intern to put a patient on 17% Oxygen. The Respiratory Therapist went to see the patient and then phoned the doctor who told him he had stuffed towels in all the windows and wedged them under the door and had three people in the room smoking the biggest cigars he could find. Even then the best he could do was 19 ½ %. What would the doctor like him to do?
At that point the 'Doctor' looked rather like the proverbial 'deer in the headlights' and said,
"You are trying to tell me something here, right?"
The RT then informed him that the percentage of Oxygen in the ambient air was 21% and told him what to order to see what sort of supplemental Oxygen the patient might require.