question: I am a little confused. My mother had a biopsy this morning in England and after it was over and she was in recovery her left lung collapsed and blood went into both her lungs (not a huge amount). They put her on oxygen, but because she has asthma, her blood became acidic because of high carbon dioxide levels. The have her on a oxygen mask which is on firmly and have inserted a drainage tube. When I asked about her oxygen saturation levels they said she was at 99%, but wanted her to be closer to 82%. Am I missing something? I thought normal oxygen saturation levels should be between 95-100%. I know this as I have just gone through 6 weeks of my colleagues Mum in ICU who died from Lung Cancer and who worked as a nurse. So I speak a lot of time talking over treatment with the doctors as I was the one who remained calm. My Mother is 82, very active, does have a slow heart because they lasered off an extra valve and is not overweight. I am trying to control things from here as I have an hysterical sister!!! I just spoke with them again and they said she is definitely more alert, than she was 4 hours ago.